Working group categories for sampling and research interests: Biodiversity, the world of bacteria and phytoplankton
Even though the physical and chemical context is crucial to our understanding of phytoplankton bloom processes, biogeochemical oceanographers mainly focus on living things; from the smallest virus (mainly a small piece of DNA in a shell) to large marine mammals (seals, polar bears or whales). Obviously, while a pair of binocular suffices to observe birds and whales, it requires various techniques and pieces of equipment for the smaller critters.
Working group categories for sampling and research interests: Zooplankton, vertical fluxes & pelago-benthic coupling
Most of the time, critters above 150 µm in size are animals (either herbivores of carnivores); they are what we call Zooplankton. In the ocean most of them are copepods. To catch them scientists deploy nets of various mesh sizes either vertically or horizontally.
Working group categories for sampling and research interests: Primary Production and related processes
On top of measuring “what is there” in term of quantities, scientists also do a lot of experiments to determine “what is going on there”. Mostly, they are interested in primary production (the first step of the food chain) and bacterial production.
