Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Last updated
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Company type Non Profit
FoundedJuly 1974;50 years ago (1974-07)
Founders
  • Dr. Charles Yentsch
  • Dr. Clarice Yentsch
Headquarters60 Bigelow Drive,
East Boothbay, Maine
,
U.S.
Key people
Revenue14,444,038 United States dollar (2017)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website www.bigelow.org

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, founded in 1974, [1] is an independent, non-profit oceanography research institute. The Laboratory's research ranges from microbial oceanography to the large-scale biogeochemical processes that drive ocean ecosystems and health of the entire planet.

Contents

The institute's LEED Platinum laboratory is located on its research and education campus in East Boothbay, Maine. [2] Bigelow Laboratory supports the work of over 100 scientists and staff. [3] The majority of the institute's funding comes from federal and state grants and contracts, philanthropic support, and licenses and contracts with the private sector. [4]

History

The Laboratory was established by Charles and Clarice Yentsch [5] in 1974 as a private, non-profit research institution named for the oceanographer Henry Bryant Bigelow, founding director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Bigelow's extensive investigations in the early part of the twentieth century are recognized as the foundation of modern oceanography. [6] His multi-year expeditions in the Gulf of Maine, where he collected water samples and data on phytoplankton, fish populations, and hydrography, established a new paradigm of intensive, ecologically-based oceanographic research in the United States and made this region one of the most thoroughly studied bodies of water, for its size, in the world. [7]

Since its founding, the Laboratory has attracted federal grants for research projects by winning competitive, peer reviewed awards from all of the principal federal research granting agencies. The Laboratory's total operating revenue (including philanthropy) has grown to over $18 million dollars a year. [4] Federal research grants have supported most of the Laboratory's research operations. Education and outreach programs rely on other sources of support, primarily contributions from individuals and private philanthropic foundations.

In February 2018, Deborah Bronk became the president and CEO of Bigelow Laboratory. Prior to joining the Laboratory, Bronk was the Moses D. Nunnally Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences and department chair at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. She previously served as division director for the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Science and as president of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

Research

Bigelow Laboratory studies the marine organisms that form the foundation of ocean health [8] . Most of these are the microscopic life that drives global biogeochemical processes and forms the base of the ocean’s food web — including phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria, archaea, viruses, and protists. Some of them are large, like kelp and coral reefs.

Bigelow Laboratory’s research efforts are grouped into three interdisciplinary themes [8] :

Education programs

The Laboratory's education activities include high school, undergraduate, postdoctoral, and professional training programs. [9] The Laboratory also hosts public events and programs, such as its popular Café Sci series of talks for nonscientists. [10]

At the high school level, Bigelow Laboratory offers the annual Keller BLOOM (Bigelow Laboratory Orders Of Magnitude) program [11] for Maine high school juniors, as well as the BLOOM Educators program to help Maine teachers to bring ocean science into their classrooms. [12] The week-long BLOOM programs offer participants the opportunity to work alongside professional researchers and explore ocean science through field and laboratory work.

At the undergraduate level, Bigelow Laboratory offers Sea Change, [13] a semester-in-residence program for undergraduate students at its campus. Students live in the Laboratory's award-winning residence hall, [14] take classes from Bigelow Laboratory scientists, and gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge research in the lab and in the field. [15]

The Laboratory annually hosts a 10-week internship program as part of the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. [16] Each summer, more than 30 students from across the country travel to East Boothbay to conduct original research under the mentorship of Bigelow Laboratory scientists. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plankton</span> Organisms living in water or air that are drifters on the current or wind

Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in water but are unable to actively propel themselves against currents. The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish, and baleen whales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algal bloom</span> Spread of planktonic algae in water

An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term algae encompasses many types of aquatic photosynthetic organisms, both macroscopic multicellular organisms like seaweed and microscopic unicellular organisms like cyanobacteria. Algal bloom commonly refers to the rapid growth of microscopic unicellular algae, not macroscopic algae. An example of a macroscopic algal bloom is a kelp forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zooplankton</span> Heterotrophic protistan or metazoan members of the plankton ecosystem

Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community, having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequently, they drift or are carried along by currents in the ocean, or by currents in seas, lakes or rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</span> Private, nonprofit research and education facility

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continuous Plankton Recorder</span> Marine biology monitoring programming

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey is one of the longest running marine biological monitoring programmes in the world. Started in 1931 by Sir Alister Hardy and Sir Cyril Lucas, the Survey provides marine scientists and policy-makers with measures of plankton communities, coupled with ocean physical, biological and chemical observations, on a pan-oceanic scale. The Survey is a globally recognised leader on the impacts of environmental change on the health of our oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey</span> Plankton community monitoring project in Australias oceans

The Australian Continuous Plankton Recorder (AusCPR) survey is a joint project of the CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division, DEWHA, to monitor plankton communities as a guide to the health of Australia's oceans.

The Center for Microbial Oceanography (C-MORE) is a research and education organization established in 2006 as a National Science Foundation funded Science and Technology Center.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planktivore</span> Aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Particulate organic matter</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Longhurst</span> British-born Canadian oceanographer (1925–2023)

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Deborah K. Steinberg is an American Antarctic biological oceanographer who works on interdisciplinary oceanographic research programs. Steinberg's research focuses on the role that zooplankton play in marine food webs and the global carbon cycle, and how these small drifting animals are affected by changes in climate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Orcutt</span> American oceanographer

Beth N. Orcutt is an American oceanographer whose research focuses on the microbial life of the ocean floor. As of 2012, she is a senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. She is also a senior scientist of the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations, a Science and Technology Center funded by the National Science Foundation and headquartered at the University of Southern California and part of the Deep Carbon Observatory Deep Life Community. Orcutt has made fundamental contributions to the study of life below the seafloor, particularly in oceanic crust and has worked with the International Scientific Ocean Drilling Program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidi Sosik</span> American biologist, oceanographer

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A marine food web is a food web of marine life. At the base of the ocean food web are single-celled algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton. The second trophic level is occupied by zooplankton which feed off the phytoplankton. Higher order consumers complete the web. There has been increasing recognition in recent years that marine microorganisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Bronk</span> American oceanographer

Deborah Ann Bronk is an American oceanographer and the president and CEO of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. She leads the nonprofit research institution in East Boothbay, Maine in its mission to understand the ocean's microbial engine and to harness the potential of these and other organisms at the base of the ocean food web through research, education, and innovation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Platt</span> British and Canadian marine scientist

Trevor Charles Platt was a British and Canadian biological oceanographer who was distinguished for his fundamental contributions to quantifying primary production by phytoplankton at various scales of space and time in the ocean.

David Michael Karl is an American microbial biologist and oceanographer. He is the Victor and Peggy Brandstrom Pavel Professor of Microbial Oceanography at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the Director of the University Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education.

Clarice Morel Yentsch is a scientist, author, education and museum professional, and community benefactor. As a scientist, she pioneered the use of flow cytometry to investigate marine phytoplankton and co-founded Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

Patricia Ana Matrai is a marine scientist known for her work on the cycling of sulfur. She is a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

References

  1. ↑ "History". Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  2. ↑ Ben Bulkeley (December 18, 2012). "Bigelow picks up prestigious award". Boothbay Register.
  3. ↑ "$30 million project will expand footprint, capacity of Bigelow research center in East Boothbay". June 8, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Impact Report 2023" (PDF). Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. July 16, 2024. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  5. ↑ Christopher Cousins (September 22, 2012). "Renowned Maine-based scientist known as 'beloved maverick' dies at age 85". BDN Maine Midcoast.
  6. ↑ David Dobbs (January 1999). "Henry Bryant Bigelow". Harvard Magazine.
  7. ↑ Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder (1953). "Fishes of the Gulf of Maine" (PDF). Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Bigelow Laboratory: Our Science".
  9. ↑ "Bigelow Laboratory Education".
  10. ↑ "Bigelow Laboratory's Café Sci".
  11. ↑ "Keller BLOOM Program - Celebrating our 30th Anniversary".
  12. ↑ "BLOOM Educators Program".
  13. ↑ "Sea Change at Bigelow Laboratory".
  14. ↑ "Bigelow Laboratory: Graham Shimmield Residence Hall". September 30, 2020.
  15. ↑ Ben Bulkeley (November 16, 2012). "Microscopic beginnings". Boothbay Register.
  16. ↑ "Research Experience for Undergraduates at Bigelow Laboratory". Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  17. ↑ "At Bigelow Laboratory, Interns Discover and Develop".


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