Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) are conducting a research cruise in the North Pacific to study bacteria involved in the marine carbon cycle. The primary purpose of the KM10-12 cruise aboard the R/V Kilo Moana is to study quorum sensing, a type of bacterial cell-to-cell communication, on sinking particles in the upper ocean. The work of this cruise builds upon a cruise in June 2009 in Clayoquot Sound on the coast of Vancouver Island, BC. These expeditions are funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences under the Chemical Oceanography Program (NSF/OCE/CO-0825407).
This research expedition, from July 13-23, will take place on the R/V Kilo Moana, a 186-foot-long general purpose research vessel with a small waterplane area twin hull. On board will be 22 scientific personnel and 24 crew.
The R/V Kilo Moana will travel from the University of Hawaii Marine Center on the island of Oahu to Station ALOHA, about 60nm off of Oahu. For ten days, the ship will deploy drifting sediment traps at Station ALOHA. The researchers will process some of the collected particles and seawater on board the ship and will prepare other samples for analysis after the cruise.
Particulate Matter
This detritus material is sticky and agglomerates into heavier particles that sink. This epifluorescence micrograph of a stained gelatinous particle (about 200 microns in size) was harvested from a particle trap set 60 meters deep in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, Canada, in 2009. Note individual microbial cells (about 0.5 to 2 microns in length) embedded in gelatinous material together with other plankton “hard parts.” (Photo by Tracy Mincer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
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