Promoting a mechanistic understanding of the chemical currencies in marine microbial ecosystems in the context of a changing planet and through increased participation in ocean sciences

Daniella Asturias is a C-CoMP B2P fellow with Mak Saito @whoi.ocean She is investigating B12 mutualisms between bacteria and diatoms in Antarctic ecosystems ❄️, using proteomics and trace metal analysis to explore how microbial interactions shape nutrient cycling.

Daniella is fascinated by how microbes 🦠 adapt and respond to environmental change, especially in extreme ecosystems. She’s also interested in remote sensing approaches and is working with PACE satellite data 🛰️ to study shifts in phytoplankton community composition.

Daniella is excited to uncover how tiny organisms sustain life at the edges of the planet and what they can teach us about resilience in a changing world 🌎!

Photos by Fadime Stemmer.

#MTTM #marinemicrobes #mutualisms #b12 #diatoms #phytoplankton #anarctica #proteomics #tracemetals #fieldwork #oceanographer #oceanography #oceanscience #researchcruise #remotesensing#scienceandtechnology

During the March 2025 cruise on the @rvatlanticexplorer, C-CoMP rigorously sampled diel ☀️🌙 (and sometimes hourly) dynamics at 15 m at 2 stations: the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site and Northeast U.S. Shelf (NES) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Station 11 site.

During diel work, the science team used red light while sample processing to prevent microbes from responding to the presence of white light. All in all, the science team filtered an estimated ~3900 L of seawater 🌊 during night diel time points alone!

Photos by Claire Garfield and McKenzie Powers.

#FieldworkFriday #rvatlanticexplorer #bermuda #bermudaatlantictimeseries #sargassosea #oceanography #marinetech #ctdrosette #oceanographicsampling #metabolites #marinemicrobes #phytoplankton #fieldwork #researchcruise #diel #dielsampling #temporal #temporaldynamics #filtering #primaryproduction #teamscience #nsffunded #scienceandtechnology

#MTTM

Fadime Stemmer is a @mit/ @whoi.ocean Joint Program PhD Student in Chemical Oceanography working with Dr. Mak Saito. She is investigating the role that proteases (enzymes that degrade proteins) play in marine carbon cycling & how trace metal availability impacts these processes.

Fadime is fascinated by biology’s ability to drive large-scale biogeochemical cycles through enzymes that are produced by marine microbes 🦠. Even though they are tiny, these microbes control and balance large-scale seawater composition 🌊 and climate 🌎.

Headshot provided by Fadime Stemmer. All other photos by Loay Jabre.

#proteases #proteins #proteomics #marinechemistry #tracemetals #marinemicrobes #phytoplankton #biogeochemicalcycling #oceanography #oceanscience #fieldwork #researchcruise #scienceandtechnology

During the March 2025 cruise on the @rvatlanticexplorer, C-CoMP deployed 68 CTD casts in 12 days. A few casts profiled chemical/biological properties of the water column 🌊 down to a few hundred meters, but 64 casts were used to investigate diel microbial dynamics at 15 meters 🦠☀️🌛!

Once the CTD landed 🛬 on deck, the research team would quickly gather around it to collect seawater into vials and carboys for various forms of downstream processing, including lots of filtering, to capture and separate microbes 🦠 and particles from the seawater 🌊!

Videos by Daniella Asturias and McKenzie Powers. Photos by McKenzie Powers, Emily Hu, and Ben Acosta (@benbotv2).

#FieldworkFriday #rvatlanticexplorer #bermuda #bermudaatlantictimeseries #sargassosea #oceanography #marinetech #ctdrosette #oceanographicsampling #metabolites #marinemicrobes #phytoplankton #fieldwork #researchcruise #primaryproduction #teamscience #nsffunded #scienceandtechnology