By Mary Lide Parker

As humans, we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide—if we ran out of oxygen we would be in trouble. But in some parts of the ocean, where oxygen levels hit rock bottom, life persists. Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs) are critical for the carbon, nitrogen, and energy balances in the ocean. In order to examine this on a detailed scale, scientists need to collect water samples that contain these compounds. However, it is difficult to sample, move, and incubate seawater from OMZs without oxygen contamination – until now. Learn more about how Dr. Andrew Babbin and his #MicrOMZs research team plan to do this.

 

This post was originally published here.