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Researchers with AOML’s Environmental Microbiology Lab joined a global effort to sample the smallest members of the ocean ecosystem on June 21 during International Ocean Sampling Day. Organized and led by the European Union’s MicroB3 organization and the Ocean Sampling Day Consortium, Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) is a simultaneous sampling campaign of the world’s oceans and coastal waters. These cumulative samples, related in time, space and environmental parameters, contribute to determine a baseline of global marine biodiversity and functions on the molecular level.

What are scientists looking for?

The organisms of scientific interest for the OSD campaign include microscopic Bacteria, Archaea, Fungi, Protists and viruses, collectively known as microbes. Microbes make up 98 percent of the biomass in Earth’s oceans and are responsible for most of the biological activity that takes place within it. Microbes are found everywhere, from the ocean surface to deep within rocks beneath the ocean floor. They are pervasive and can evolve rapidly in response to changes in the environment. In fact, many scientists consider microbes to be a “canary in the coal mine”, signaling local and global changes in the oceans. It is, therefore, important to acquire information from across the globe on this vast community of organisms, against which future changes can be observed and measured.

2014: The first global OSD effort

During the 2014 Ocean Sampling Day event, over 180 scientific teams participated from all continents ranging from subtropical waters in the Caribbean to extreme environments in the Antarctic Ocean. On this day, more than 600 people all around the world took water samples from the ocean in order to identify the microbes within. Scientists used the data collected to support projects focusing on environmental microbiology parameters that describe the relationship between marine microbes and human health and the health of our local marine ecosystems. This data will also provide insights to the ocean economy through the identification of novel, ocean-derived biotechnologies.

Researchers with AOML’s Environmental Microbiology Lab joined a global effort to sample the smallest members of the ocean ecosystem on June 21 during International Ocean Sampling Day. Organized and led by the European Union’s MicroB3 organization and the Ocean Sampling Day Consortium, Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) is a simultaneous sampling campaign of the world’s oceans and coastal waters. These cumulative samples, related in time, space and environmental parameters, contribute to determine a baseline of global marine biodiversity and functions on the molecular level.

What are scientists looking for?

The organisms of scientific interest for the OSD campaign include microscopic Bacteria, Archaea, Fungi, Protists and viruses, collectively known as microbes. Microbes make up 98 percent of the biomass in Earth’s oceans and are responsible for most of the biological activity that takes place within it. Microbes are found everywhere, from the ocean surface to deep within rocks beneath the ocean floor. They are pervasive and can evolve rapidly in response to changes in the environment. In fact, many scientists consider microbes to be a “canary in the coal mine”, signaling local and global changes in the oceans. It is, therefore, important to acquire information from across the globe on this vast community of organisms, against which future changes can be observed and measured.

2014: The first global OSD effort

During the 2014 Ocean Sampling Day event, over 180 scientific teams participated from all continents ranging from subtropical waters in the Caribbean to extreme environments in the Antarctic Ocean. On this day, more than 600 people all around the world took water samples from the ocean in order to identify the microbes within. Scientists used the data collected to support projects focusing on environmental microbiology parameters that describe the relationship between marine microbes and human health and the health of our local marine ecosystems. This data will also provide insights to the ocean economy through the identification of novel, ocean-derived biotechnologies.

Where are AOML scientists sampling?

This year, AOML will coordinate and sample ten OSD sites across the country. In addition to the 2014 sites in the Florida Keys, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, La Jolla, California, and Horn Island, Mississippi, AOML will coordinate five new sites spread across the Florida peninsula from Pensacola to Miami. Sampling sites are expected to be monitored long-term as part of the international Genomic Observatories Network and the resulting database will be accessible to the public.

MyOSD: The citizen scientist component

 OSD organizers have amended the citizen science component for this year’s event, allowing individuals from all over the globe to collect samples in their backyard using handy sampling kits. This component, called MyOSD, gives individuals the chance to help scientists unravel the mysteries of the marine microbial world by collecting important environmental data such as latitude, longitude, temperature, salinity, pH and wind speed.

A citizen scientist from MAST Academy samples a site on Key Biscayne with a MyOSD kit. Image Credit: NOAA

Originally Published by Edward Pritchard, 2015

NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) participated in Ocean Sampling Day on June 21, the first global simultaneous sampling for microbes in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters. Over time, sampling will support international and NOAA missions to provide a snapshot of the diversity of microbes, their functions, and their potential economic benefits. Among other economic applications, microbes have been used for novel medicines, as biofuels, and to consume spilled oil. Organized and led by the European Union’s MicroB3 organization, NOAA coordinated twelve sampling sites for Ocean Sampling Day 2014 within U.S. coastal waters.

AOML scientists Kelly Goodwin enters data from water samples from La Jolla, CA.

“Small organisms make up the majority of the ocean’s biomass and drive the cycles that sustain life on earth, but not until recently have we had the tools to reveal their diversity and function,” said Kelly Goodwin, a microbiologist at AOML. “Ocean Sampling Day and future efforts in Genomic Observatories will employ state-of-the art ‘omic technologies to uncover how the oceans are adapting to a multitude of stressors and how those changes translate up to ecosystem services – including seafood supply and healthy swimming waters and coastal habitats.”

NOAA’s Marine Microbes Working Group coordinated 12 sampling locations, part of more than 150 international sites, and supported cross-line NOAA efforts to include NOAA Research centers, including AOML, NOAA Fisheries centers, and NOAA’s National Ocean Service Sanctuary locations (Grays Reef and Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuaries). NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research coordinated the broader NOAA science and outreach/education aspects. Sampling sites are expected to be monitored long-term as part of the international ocean Genomic Observatories Network and the database will serve as a baseline, accessible to the research community, industry, policy makers and the public. The Smithsonian’s Global Genome Initiative will archive samples.

AOML staff, with support from a cadre of summer interns, coordinated five locations in south Florida and in California. Sites included Port Everglades, Tennessee Reef offshore of Long Key in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and near the mouth of Tampa Bay at Fort DeSoto in Saint Petersburg. AOML collaborators from the University of Southern Mississippi conducted sampling at Horn Island offshore of the Mississippi Coast. AOML scientists also coordinated the sampling the OSD site at the Scripps Institute Pier in La Jolla, California.

AOML student interns collect samples from the Florida Keys

Citizen Scientists all over the world also collected environmental data (water and air temperature, salinity, oxygen, etc.) to support the microbial sampling collected globally on the summer solstice. In La Jolla, CA, one of AOML’s remote employees worked with a local scout troop to guide them in collecting similar environmental data. These local efforts were designed to raise general awareness about Ocean Sampling Day.