Another of the many activities taking place in this mega-disciplinary campaign is determining the content of coccolithophores (coccoliths), a species of plankton actively involved in the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide as it has calcareous shells in their cellular structure.

Come for drinks: Samples after being taken in the rosette (and we do not show the picture because it is the same as always), are introduced in these glasses to be filtered and thus concentrate coccoliths in a filter.

No Mercy. This is the aspect of the filters once that a pint of water passed through them and locked in a petri dish. As shown, the surface sample has more beer than the deeper because the critters often live in the illuminated area.

The chamber of horrors: then were enclosed into a chamber at 50 degrees to preserve them until analysis ashore.

Ocean acidification, which we talked the other day, greatly affects these organisms degrading their calcareous shells as shown in the vignette. Figure A shows the healthy coco and D the coconut affected by acidification. However, certain organisms no so calcareous, this process also affects them greatly, but see what happens to a marine scientist for the continuously use acid for his analysis of alkalinity:

                     Fiz more or less healthy                            Fiz greatly altered