The lab has been very busy this summer with a lot of field work and new collaborations!
This last May we worked aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer, in collaboration with Dr. Amy Maas from the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS), with the goal of studying the microbiome of zooplankton fecal pellets and the link to diel vertical migrations/circadian rhythms. We were also testing the role of zooplankton in particle formation and aggregation of Sargasso Sea plankton communities. The Neuer Lab’s role was to sample zooplankton fecal pellets all-around-the-clock, as well as perform the zooplankton-amended aggregation experiments.
Check out the article on this expedition featured in The Bermudian Magazine!
In June we were back aboard the R/V AE out in the Sargasso Sea to sample intact sinking particles using gel traps! The picked particles will be subjected to amplicon sequencing analyses, as well as microscopy using FISH-probes in collaboration with Dr. Rachel Parsons and the Microbial Ecology Laboratory (BIOS).