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Phytoplankton…tiny, mostly single-celled organisms

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that live in the oceans, creating energy for our ocean’s ecosystems.

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They’re eaten by zooplankton, slightly larger organisms

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that make a daily trek from the ocean’s sunny upper layer to its pitch-black depths.

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In this cycle, they drift through an important region,

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a dimly lit middle ground between light and shadow…an area scientists call

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the twilight zone.

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Enter the Export Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing, or EXPORTS project

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– a team of more than 150 scientists…from 29 different institutions…

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onboard two research vessels with a fleet of autonomous vehicles…

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traveling west from Seattle to study these phytoplankton.

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The team, made up of researchers from NASA, the National Science Foundation, including

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the University of California- Santa Barbara, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

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and other university and agency partners, will deploy robotic explorers

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and instruments from the two ships to study the diversity of plankton in the ocean.

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The ocean absorbs approximately 1/2 of the carbon dioxide

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from Earth’s atmosphere. Like plants on land, phytoplankton take in this carbon

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and release oxygen. Their blooms can

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be seen in images taken from space. As the phytoplankton die or are eaten

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by zooplankton, that consumed carbon is exported into the twilight zone

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zone and stored there. 

Understanding the diversity and makeup of plankton

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in the ocean can help scientists understand the role the ocean plays in consuming,

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and sequestering, carbon from the atmosphere.

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In turn, understanding this can give insight into the ocean’s carbon cycle

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and how it helps regulate our home planet’s changing climate.