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Serving Up Synechococcus

Kristen Hunter-Cevera investigates abundant organisms in the ocean, a photosynthetic bacteria called Synechococcus, that are also an important food source in the marine food chain and produce a significant portion of Earth’s oxygen. Despite their importance, they are hard to observe in open ocean, and some are hard to grow in the lab. Two WHOI scientists who discovered Synechococcus in the 1970s, John Waterbury and Freddy Valois, helped the MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student grow different types of Synechococcus cultures, distinguished here by different colors. so she can study the physiological and ecologial differences governing where and when they grow.(Photo by Dehann Fourie, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)