"From Plankton to Planet"

Fall 2013

Presented by Deborah K. Steinberg, Professor of Marine Science
October 29, 2013 in the Kimball Theatre

Lecture Highlights

The ocean teems with untold numbers and kinds of tiny animals called zooplankton. They feed the fishes that feed us, graze the microscopic algae that produce most of our oxygen and might even help reduce global warming by releasing what marine scientists gingerly call "fecal pellets." Despite their fundamental importance to ocean food webs and the global carbon cycle, zooplankton remain, in many ways, a mystery. Their small size, fragile bodies and remote habitats make them notoriously difficult to study.

Professor Deborah Steinberg of �鶹�ƽ��'s Virginia Institute of Marine Science has studied the mysteries of zooplankton for more than 25 years, beginning with her first research cruise to Antarctica in 1987. Using photos and video from research cruises to Chesapeake Bay, the Antarctic Peninsula, the Amazon plume and the Sargasso Sea, she takes audiences on a virtual voyage from the coastal zone to the open ocean, revealing a startling and beautiful world filled with animals stranger than science fiction—from floating, shell-free snails and jelly-like creatures bigger than humans to deep-sea animals that make their own light and tiny zooplankton that migrate thousands of feet each day in search of food.

Steinberg also shares how she and her team collect zooplankton using everything from mechanical nets to robotic submersibles, and highlights the contributions of �鶹�ƽ�� undergraduate and graduate researchers in both the lab and the field.