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Life in the Fast Lane

Observed by postdoctoral scholar Shawn Arellano (back left), Joint Program students Oscar Sosa and Jeanette Wheeler watch as fellow student Sara Bosshart adds fluorescein dye to WHOI’s racetrack flume to visualize how flowing water moves around a rock on the bottom. Currents near the seafloor influence dispersal of invertebrate larvae, distribution of food particles, and ability of suspension-feeders to capture those particles. The dye exercise was part of a unit on “Life in Boundary-Layer Flow” in the Biological Oceanography course taught by biologists Lauren Mullineaux (in red shirt) and Sam Laney. The students also used a Laser Doppler Anemometer to measure flow speeds and observed particle transport over and deposition onto a rough ‘seafloor.’

(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)