Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP)
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microbialplanet.bsky.social
Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP)
@microbialplanet.bsky.social
1K followers 340 following 190 posts
We are a NSF Science and Technology Center that explores how metabolite exchange through microbial networks impacts carbon cycling in the surface ocean
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microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Dr. Henry Holm is a postdoc researcher working with C-CoMP and the Dyhrman and Hurley lab groups @columbiauniversity.bsky.social @lamont.columbia.edu. He is a chemical 🧪oceanographer by training and thinks a lot about how phytoplankton move carbon through the ocean 🌊.
Headshot of Dr. Henry Holm. Henry holds an Erlenmeyer flask containing a phytoplankton culture while working in a lab at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Photo by Henry Holm. Henry and his colleague check for leaks in glass towers used to filter carbon samples aboard the RV Sarmiento de Gamboa (North Atlantic 2021). Photo by Marley Parker. Henry processes sediment trap samples on the deck of the RV Endeavor in the Gulf of Maine in 2021. Photo by Henry Holm.
November 3, 2025 at 2:04 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
C-CoMP focuses on microbes & chemicals, so it is easy for us to forget how vast our ocean is 🌊. Being at sea 🚢 is the loveliest reminder - there’s nothing as wondrous or humbling as floating in endless cerulean blue while receiving rare visits from animals🐦!
A sunset at sea captured from the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Natalie Graham. A bird visits the R/V Atlantic Explorer (AE) during the 2025 C-CoMP September Cruise between Bermuda and Woods Hole, MA. The bird is perched on the arm of a chair that is on the deck of the AE. Photo by Irina Koester. The CTD rosette on the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer during sunset in the Sargasso Sea. Photo by Emily Hu.
October 31, 2025 at 1:32 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Annika Gomez is a @simonsfoundation.org Postdoc Fellow in Marine Microbial Ecology in the Dyhrman Group @columbiauniversity.bsky.social. She studies marine viruses that exert a major influence on the fate of organic carbon in phytoplankton 🌊using ‘omics and culturing methods.
Annika Gomez stands next to the CTD rosette on the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer and monitors the transfer of seawater from Niskin bottles into carboys. Photo by Claire Garfield. Annika inspects the peristaltic pump in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Photo by Claire Garfield. Annika works with Erin Maybach to process samples in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Photo by Fadime Stemmer.
October 20, 2025 at 2:34 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
Had a fabulous time meeting with C-CoMP members last week at our Annual Meeting in Woods Hole. Thanks for all the great discussions 🧪🌊🦠💻🚢🌎! We are looking forward to an exciting year of investigating bioreactive molecules within the marine chemical-microbial network!
Group photo of C-CoMP members who attended the 2025 C-CoMP Annual meeting in-person and remotely. 50 people gather together at the front of a meeting room at WHOI. The people in the first row sit in chairs while the other two rows stand behind them. An image of the remote attendees is superimposed on the wall behind the in-person attendees. Photo taken and edited by Jayne Doucette, WHOI. A sub-group of ~14 people sit in a circle to discuss center progress and plans within a smaller focus-area. Photo by Laura Gray. C-CoMP members sit together at a table to build molecules out of Lego for one of Mak Saito's classes. A few members hold up their creations to feature them! Photo by Laura Gray. A group of 11 early career researchers take a break from the meeting to walk to the beach. They stand next to each other on a rocky/pebbly beach and are framed by a blue sky and a sliver of Vineyard Sound in the background. Photo by Claire Garfield.
October 17, 2025 at 5:41 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
And more photos:
Arianna Krinos prepares filter towers for filtering seawater in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Photo by Emily Hu. A photo of a busy, active, and packed lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Peristaltic pumps cover the lab benches as tubing runs from the pumps into large carboys placed on the floor. Photo by Erin Maybach.
October 3, 2025 at 1:34 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
Once seawater lands on deck, it’s go time 🏁! Researchers frequently spend hours in the lab each day and night (!) filtering and processing samples and running incubations. Here are a few snapshots from lab work during the C-CoMP 2025 March Cruise, AE2504!
Ben Acosta (left) and Erin Maybach (right) work together to finish filtering seawater using peristaltic pumps. Erin holds a serological pipette in the air to help move the last few milliliters of seawater through the filter while Ben keeps other tubing in place over a carboy of seawater. Photo by Annika Gomez. Claire Garfield and McKenzie Powers monitor their filtering progress in the lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. They are both sitting and holding their carboys and tubing in place as they filter liters of seawater on a rocking ship. Photo by Erin Maybach. Natalie Graham processes samples for dissolved metabolite analysis in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Seawater is first filtered and then the seawater filtrate is pushed through a cartridge using the method solid phase extraction (SPE) with a gentle vacuum. In the picture, Natalie stands in front of the lab bench and holds pieces of clear tubing that divert seawater from 2 bottles. The tubing moves seawater from the bottles into the SPE cartridges that are attached to the glass vacuum manifold. Photo provided by Natalie Graham. Ben Acosta (left) and Loay Jabre (right) process samples in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP March cruise. Photo by Fadime Stemmer.
October 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Mariana Torres (martorres.bsky.social) is a C-CoMP B2P Fellow working with @rogierbraakman.bsky.social @mit.edu. Using computational methods, they are investigating environmental drivers of carbon cycle metabolism dynamics in the North Atlantic Ocean 🌊.
Headshot of Mariana Torres with the ocean in the background. Photo by Amanda Ellis. Mariana and Natalie Graham stand next to each other on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP September Cruise. Photo by Fadime Stemmer. Mariana processes samples on a bench in the lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP September Cruise. Photo by Fadime Stemmer. Mariana, Fadime Stemmer, Mario Uchimiya, and Justin Fujii take a picture together in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP September Cruise. Photo by Mariana Torres.
September 29, 2025 at 3:32 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
And that’s a wrap 🎬on C-CoMP Cruise 2 🚢! We (C-CoMP + AE) accomplished an impressive feat - 95 CTD casts, 110,778 L of sw filtered with @clio-thebgcauv.bsky.social, eddy sampling, & 9 exp types across 3 locations - to characterize marine chemical currencies & microbes!
The science personnel of C-CoMP Cruise AE2520 (and Clio) stand together on the stern of the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Parts of the Woods Hole dock and village frame the background of the photo. Photo provided by Elizabeth Kujawinski and edited by Laura Gray. The science personnel of C-CoMP Cruise AE2520 (and Clio) stand together on the stern of the R/V Atlantic Explorer while making various fun poses. Parts of the Woods Hole dock and village frame the background of the photo. Photo provided by Elizabeth Kujawinski and edited by Laura Gray.
September 19, 2025 at 3:30 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Jill Paquette is a C-CoMP B2P fellow working in the
Dyhrman Lab @lamont.columbia.edu @columbiauniversity.bsky.social. She uses computational approaches and lab culturing methods to investigate how nutrient stress affects the gene expression of eukaryotic phytoplankton 🌊🦠.
Headshot of Jill Paquette standing in a lab. Photo provided by Jill Paquette. Jill gives a "thumbs up" lab selfie while wearing safety glasses, a lab coat, and purple gloves. Photo provided by Jill Paquette.
September 16, 2025 at 5:42 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
During our March cruise, C-CoMP researchers deployed SVP drifters during diel sampling. The drifters enabled tracking/sampling the same parcel of water in a Lagrangian approach, aiding efforts to capture diel microbial signals from the same water over time!
Emily Hu (left) and Natalie Graham (right) prepare the drifter for deployment within a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Photo by Arianna Krinos. Emily Hu (unpictured), Natalie Graham, and Emily Tate deploy a drifter over the side of the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the 2025 March C-CoMP cruise. Photo by Arianna Krinos. Daniella Asturias unpacks the drifters from their shipping box before the beginning of the March 2025 cruise. Photo by Emily Hu. A SVP drifter lays in the grass at BIOS during activation and testing before the beginning of the March 2025 cruise. Photo by Emily Hu.
September 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
During the C-CoMP March Cruise, Clio, the biogeochemistry AUV, was used to collect particle samples for proteomics and metagenomics from various depths within the water column. Check out some of these photos of Clio in action:
Michael Jakuba and Chip Breier, along with other members of the research team and crew of the Atlantic Explorer, ready Clio for deployment during the 2025 C-CoMP March cruise. Photo by Daniella Asturias. Clio partially submerged at the ocean’s surface somewhere in the Sargasso Sea. Photo by Claire Garfield. A view of Clio with its back panel removed. The panel is removed to access the stack of clamshells holding the filters containing microbial biomass that were filtered at depth by Clio. Photo by Daniella Asturias. On the 2025 C-CoMP March Cruise, some members of the Clio team (from left to right: Daniella Asturias, Matt McIlvin, Fadime Stemmer, Loay Jabre) pose with a stack of Clio's clamshells shortly before removing and sectioning the filters for metaproteomics and metagenomics analyses. Photo by McKenzie Powers.
August 29, 2025 at 1:16 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
C-CoMP participated in the 2025 Woods Hole Science Stroll! Our booth, called the “Artistic Oceanographer”, invited visitors to explore & imagine incredible adaptations of marine phytoplankton. Thanks to our volunteers & the Dyhrman Lab @lamont.columbia.edu for creating this activity!
The Artistic Oceanographer booth at the 2025 Woods Hole Science Stroll. A large banner that depicts a graphical representation of the booth activity, complete with phytoplankton hero cartoons, hangs over two picnic tables. Materials for the activity, including paper, crayons, and two computers, are set out on both picnic tables. Photo by Victoria Centurino. C-CoMP Director Dr. Elizabeth Kujawinski sits at a picnic table at the Artistic Oceanographer booth with two children who are completing the activity. Graduate student Ella Claire Walsh sits at an adjoining table. Photo by Victoria Centurino. A drawing of a cat-like phytoplankton that was created by one of the visitors who was also wearing a T-shirt with cats on it! Photo by Ella Claire Walsh. A drawing of a “see-through”, invisible phytoplankton that was created by one of the visitors. Photo by Victoria Centurino.
August 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday
Our fieldwork doesn't only happen at sea!
C-CoMP researchers working with @maratimes.bsky.social collected Providence River water to test extraction methods for samples collected on C-CoMP cruises. In terms of filtering speed, 5 L of Sargasso sw = 50 mL of Providence River water!
C-CoMP Bridge-to-PhD Fellow Emily Hu stands in front of the Providence River while holding brown collection bottles containing river water. Photo by Arianna Krinos. A filter that was used to filter water from the Providence River is tinged with yellow, indicating a plethora of biomass in the water. A peristaltic pump is shown on the lab bench behind a gloved hand holding the filter. Photo by Arianna Krinos.
August 15, 2025 at 1:17 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
🔬Emily Hu (@yunqianhu.bsky.social‬) is a C-CoMP B2P Fellow working with @maratimes.bsky.social & @akrinos.bsky.social at Brown. She uses microbial sequence data and computational tools to uncover how biotic🦠& abiotic drivers shape microbial community assembly in the North Atlantic Ocean 🌊.
Photo of Emily Hu on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the 2025 C-CoMP March Cruise. Emily is standing outside with the bow of the ship and the ocean behind her. Photo provided by Emily Hu. Emily collects seawater from the CTD rosette into a bottle on the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the 2025 C-CoMP March Cruise. Photo by Arianna Krinos. Emily uses sterile forceps to load filters onto filter holders in one of the labs on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Emily is using the filters to capture particles, including microbes, from the seawater. The DNA from the microbial cells will be extracted, sequenced, and analyzed to understand the microbial community composition of the seawater. Photo by Arianna Krinos.
August 11, 2025 at 1:29 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
And more images here:
Image showing 5 diatom cells (Coscinodiscus sp.), Image by Loay Jabre. Image showing a diatom (possibly Guinardia sp.) Image by Loay Jabre. Image showing a dinoflagellate (Ceratium sp.). Image by Loay Jabre.
August 8, 2025 at 1:28 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
A video of a copepod (a zoop!):
August 8, 2025 at 1:26 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
On the 2025 C-CoMP March Cruise, Dr. Loay Jabre (loayjabre.bsky.social) brought a Planktoscope(an open-source and high-throughput plankton imaging platform) on board to track community shifts of plankton in real time from BATS to the LTER site!! Check it out:
Dr. Loay Jabre stands on the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer holding a plankton net that he used to collect samples for the Planktoscope on the 2025 C-CoMP March Cruise. Photo provided by Loay Jabre. Dr. Loay Jabre runs the Planktoscope on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the 2025 C-CoMP March Cruise. Loay collects images and videos of plankton on a laptop computer that is situated to the left of the Planktoscope on a lab bench. A sample is loaded onto the Planktoscope. Photo by McKenzie Powers. Images of plankton collected using the Planktoscope along the AE2504 cruise track. Sampling locations are represented by circles on the map and color indicates sea surface temperature at the time of collection. Figure by Loay Jabre.
August 8, 2025 at 1:24 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Amanda Ellis is a C-CoMP B2P fellow working with Drs. Sarah Hurley & Sonya Dyhrman @lamont.columbia.edu. She studies the ability of marine phytoplankton 🌊 to acclimate + evolve to increasing temperature🌡️+ acidity by tracking changes to oxygen evolution + respiration rate.
Headshot of Amanda Ellis standing in the lab, wearing a lab coat. Photo provided by Amanda Ellis. Amanda works within a culture hood in the lab while wearing a lab coat. Photo provided by Amanda Ellis.
August 4, 2025 at 1:10 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
#ECRSpotlight
PhD student Marie Delcy recently presented her C-CoMP research on how early career researchers #ECRs "job craft" to make their research training a better fit with their interests & aspirations at the 2025 @sabercommunity.bsky.social meeting. Marie works with @erindolan1.bsky.social.
Marie Delcy presents her research on "job crafting" to another person as they both stand in front of her poster at the 2025 Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) Meeting. Photo provided by Erin Dolan. Marie Delcy and Dr. Erin Dolan stand in front of Marie's poster at the 2025 Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) Meeting. Photo provided by Erin Dolan.
July 29, 2025 at 5:49 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
It’s a carbon feast 🍽️ and microbes🦠are invited! During the March 2025 C-CoMP cruise, early career researchers incubated surface ocean microbial communities on novel carbon sources produced by phytoplankton to study carbon drawdown rate and post-uptake fate.
Claire Garfield and McKenzie Powers filter incubation seawater in the main lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP March 2025 cruise. Lines of tubing pass through the peristaltic pump heads, drape off the lab bench, and terminate in large blue carboys that collect the filtered seawater. Photo by Erin Maybach. The lab set-up for filtering samples for metatranscriptomics during the incubations on the C-CoMP March 2025 cruise. A series of peristaltic pumps are arranged on the lab bench with tubing passing through. Seawater is pumped up through the tubing from a carboy, passed through a filter holder containing a filter to remove microbial cells, and filtrate is collected in another carboy. Filtering is done in red light to minimize disturbance of photosynthetic cells in samples that were collected at night. Photo by Erin Maybach.
July 25, 2025 at 1:07 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Daniella Asturias @daniellaasturias.bsky.social is a C-CoMP B2P fellow with @maksaito.bsky.social @whoi.edu. She investigates B12 mutualisms between bacteria & diatoms in Antarctic ecosystems❄️ by using proteomics & trace metal analysis to explore how these interactions shape nutrient cycling.
Daniella stands in front of Clio the AUV on the deck of the RV Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP March 2025 cruise. Photo by Fadime Stemmer. Daniella helps process samples from Clio the AUV in the lab on board the RV Atlantic Explorer. Photo by Fadime Stemmer. Daniella stands on the deck of the RV Atlantic Explorer during the C-CoMP March 2025 cruise. Photo by Fadime Stemmer.
July 14, 2025 at 5:53 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
During diel work, the science team used red light while sample processing to prevent microbes from responding to the presence of white light. All in all, the science team filtered an estimated ~3900 L of seawater 🌊 during night diel time points alone!
Claire Garfield, Sonya Dyhrman, and Arianna Krinos filter seawater collected during a diel time point in one of the labs on the R/V Atlantic Explorer. The room is bathed in red light (instead of bright white overhead lights) to minimize light exposure to seawater microbes that were collected at night. Photo by McKenzie Powers.
July 11, 2025 at 1:18 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday!
During the March 2025 cruise, C-CoMP rigorously sampled diel ☀️🌙 (and sometimes hourly) dynamics at 15 m at 2 stations: the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site and Northeast U.S. Shelf (NES) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Station 11 site.
The CTD rosette hovers over the side of the R/V Atlantic Explorer in preparation for deployment at night for a diel sampling time point. Moonlight filters through clouds and reflects off the surface of the dark ocean. Photo by Claire Garfield.
July 11, 2025 at 1:17 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣#MTTM
Fadime Stemmer (@fuuchan20.bsky.social) is a MIT/ @whoi.edu Joint Program PhD Student working with @maksaito.bsky.social. She is investigating the role that proteases (enzymes that degrade proteins) play in marine carbon cycling & how trace metal availability impacts these processes.
Headshot of Fadime Stemmer. Photo provided by Fadime Stemmer. Fadime prepares to collect seawater samples from the CTD rosette on the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer during a stormy day at sea. Photo by Loay Jabre. Fadime prepares for a Clio deployment in a lab on the R/V Atlantic Explorer during the March 2025 C-CoMP cruise. Fadime stands behind a lab bench that is covered with Clio filter rigs encased in bags. Photo by Loay Jabre.
June 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
microbialplanet.bsky.social
📣 Interested in meeting new collaborators and projecting changes in ocean metabolisms 🌊 over different space & time scales using modeling? Sign up for the
@biogeoscapes.bsky.social Modeling Workshop, co-sponsored by C-CoMP, @whoi.edu in September 2025. Apply by 6/30: tinyurl.com/2ub5zx8p.
Flyer for BioGeoSCAPES Modeling Workshop scheduled for September 10-12, 2025 and containing a QR code that links to the application form.
June 26, 2025 at 1:49 PM