The Effect of Kīlauea Eruption on Ocean Microbes & Ecosystem

Often, research cruises are planned years in advance. In this case, rapid deployment was necessary because phytoplankton blooms, like the one captured in the satellite images, are short-lived.

Karl and team quickly coordinated with Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a Western Washington University researcher and SOEST alumna, who had a cruise planned to deploy a series of ocean bottom seismometers near the shoreline.

The UH Mānoa team also received funds for ship time from the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation, which also supports the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology, a cross-disciplinary effort to measure and model the critical activities of marine microbes based at UH Mānoa.