Using the same portable next generation sequencing platform employed on the International Space Station and in both the Arctic and Antarctic wilderness, students enrolled in SEA’s Marine Biodiversity & Conservation Program learn how to use modern molecular tools to ask and answer ecological and conservation questions as they sail from New Zealand to Tahiti. Traversing a range of bioregions, including temperate, blue water, and tropical, students will collect zooplankton specimens from the mesopelagic (the Ocean Twilight Zone), and conduct group research projects addressing population genomics and biodiversity. Students will examine how these ecosystems are responding to climate change, and gain an understanding of how such research informs conservation policy. This is the inaugural voyage of this cruise track for the MBC program and will establish what is planned as a long-term and much needed data set that can help shape conservation in the Pacific. The program ends in Moorea with a two-week second shore component and student-led symposium with local stakeholders, scientists, and conservationists. Students will complete their independent research projects at the Gump station, finish analyzing the data collected when aboard the ship, and prepare for their culminating presentation (May 17).

Approved