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Net Gain or Loss?

WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian (left) and U.S. Coast Guard marine science technician Daniel Gaona deploy a ring net from the icebreaker Healy in the summer of 2003. Ashjian and colleagues collected plankton to compare the in situ catch with what was detected by remote sensing instruments deployed underwater. The ultimate goal is to understand how physical processes at the edge of the continental shelf (known as a shelf break) can influence the plant and animal life in the water, and how the whole ecosystem may change as the Arctic warms. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)