Orphan Lab at Caltech

Seagrass sampling! One of the active research projects currently ongoing at Caltech's Kerckhoff Marine Lab is a study of our local seagrass meadow, focusing on the microbial communities of the seagrass rhizosphere. More info at link in bio.
Divers collect seagrass and its surrounding sediment in plastic tubes called pushcores. Samples are processed back on shore at the lab, and some plants are also incubated in the seawater tanks on the patio at KML for longer term experiments and monitoring. We hope these studies will have both local and global impact. Seagrasses are an important part of the local ecosystem in Newport Bay, providing shelter for juvenile fish and invertebrates. They also play an important role globally in carbon burial in the marine environment.
This work in the is generously supported by the Resnick Institute, and sampling is done under permit from CADFW.