From: Haley Smith Kingsland, Stanford University

 

 

 

Emily Peacock and Sam Laney (Photo by Karen Romano Young)

 

 

Don a pair of earmuffs and follow Sam Laney down to the “Garden Level.” Past the noisy winch and steering rooms, Sam works in a small space at the stern of the ship where a sampling tube extends through a hole in the Healy’s hull into the ocean. The tube collects seawater that Sam and his technician, Emily Peacock, analyze for phytoplankton distribution using a medical instrument that’s been modified to take pictures of phytoplankton cells.

 

Sam is a phytoplankton ecologist and assistant scientist in the biology department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. ICESCAPE is the first time this instrument, the Imaging FlowCytobot, has sailed on such a long, comprehensive cruise. The phytoplankton photographs it produces provide the science party with both the amount and types of phytoplankton species at different ocean depths. “It’s a new way to gain insight into what really is the number one question in ecology: who’s living in a certain environment?” Sam explains.

 

Indeed, the Imaging FlowCytobot differs from a traditional microscope because of its ability to detect and photograph almost every large phytoplankton cell in each water sample. Thus Emily and Sam’s work is establishing extensive baseline data that will help future researchers identify changes in the Arctic phytoplankton ecosystem that might result from climate change.

 

“Strictly by appearance, I think my favorite Arctic phytoplankton species is Navicula pelagica, because it looks like a necklace,” Emily says. This species inspired her to make a new category entitled ‘Jewelry’ in the digital picture library that she maintains and updates to support the Imaging FlowCytobot.

 

“People love charismatic megafauna like whales and walruses, but life on the microbial scale is also very, very interesting because it’s like life on another planet,” Sam echoes. “It’s really hard to appreciate how tricky it is to be a phytoplankton cell in the ocean. For example, we see these spines on Chaetoceros — but are they defensive spines? Or do they act like a parachute and keep Chaetoceros from sinking too fast? Do they do both? Do they do neither?”

 

“It all boils down to the question — what’s life like for these guys on the microbial scale and how do they get by?” Sam continues. “You can’t ask them questions. They’re just this little black box — or little green box — responding to changes in their environment.”

 

Sam thrives on the challenge of studying phytoplankton, while Emily, a part-time professional baker who surprised her Healy shipmates with chocolate croissants one morning, is also passionate about competing in AKC agility trials with her two Chihuahuas. “I like being a really effective assistant and reducing somebody’s stress because they have my help,” she says about her collaboration with Sam. And perhaps their teamwork will persist far into the future, since Sam considers his phytoplankton research “one big, career-spanning puzzle!”

 

 

 

 

The Imaging FlowCytobot lives in a small room well into the depths of the Healy. (Photo by Haley Smith Kingsland)

 

 

 

The Imaging FlowCytobot took these phytoplankton pictures from a water sample taken at ICESCAPE Station 8 in the Bering Strait. These micrographs show chains of Thalassiosira sp. as well as an oval-shaped dinoflagellate. (Photo by Sam Laney)