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Pteropod Hunters

More than 1,000 miles off the coast of Oregon, members of a month-long expedition helped secure a CTD rosette on deck of the research vessel New Horizon. Researchers analyzed the samples to determine the pH and chemical composition of the water column at various depths. The science team included (clockwise from bottom right): WHOI biologist Alex Bergan, chemist Katherine Hoering, guest students Kelly Knorr and Nick Tuttle, and biologist Taylor Crockford. The researchers were particularly interested in studying pteropods to understand how the ocean’s increasing acidity is affecting the organism’s distribution, respiration, and shell structure and to compare their results to an August 2011 cruise in the Atlantic.(Photo by Aleck Wang, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)