![\"\"](\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1985\/about-EXPORTS.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Expedition Probes Ocean\u2019s Smallest Organisms for Climate Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n Follow the expedition starting Aug 10, 2018<\/p>\n Satellite images of phytoplankton blooms on the surface of the ocean often dazzle with their diverse colors, shades and shapes. But phytoplankton are more than just nature\u2019s watercolors: They play a key role in Earth\u2019s climate by removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Yet a detailed account of what becomes of that carbon \u2014 how much of it goes where within the Earth and for how long \u2014 has beset scientists for decades. So while NASA\u2019s Earth-observing satellites can detect the proliferation and location of these organisms, the precise implications of their life and death cycles on the climate are still unknown. To answer those questions, a large multidisciplinary team of scientists sailed on Aug 10th, 2018 to a point 200 miles west from Seattle into the northeastern Pacific Ocean with advanced underwater robotics and other instruments on a month-long campaign to investigate the secret lives of these plantlike organisms and the animals that eat them.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n