Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP)

If you're at #AGU25 stop by presentations from my lab! @microbialplanet.bsky.social bridge to PhD fellow @yunqianhu.bsky.social (also w/ @akrinos.bsky.social) will be presenting a poster Wednesday
"OS33B-1119: Microbial Assemblages in the Context of Basin-Scale Variability Across the North Atlantic"

About Marine microbes comprise a remarkably diverse community in the ocean and account for more than 90% of the ocean’s total biomass. The organisms that we study in BIOS-SCOPE are broadly defined as plankt...

@sjtucker.bsky.social - should BIOS-SCOPE be added to this list separately from BATS?
bios.asu.edu/scope/about

Participants of the March 2025 C-CoMP cruise AE2504 sit together on the top of the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Photo shared by Ben Acosta.

Co-chief scientists Elizabeth Kujawinski and Sonya Dyhrman hug and reflect as they watch the sunrise from the deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer at the end of the second C-CoMP cruise, AE2520. Photo by Erin Maybach.

Participants (left to right: Claire Garfield, Eleanor Lawrence, Amanda Ellis, and Emily Hu) of the September 2025 C-CoMP cruise AE2520 sit together on the R/V Atlantic Explorer as they wait to disembark from Bermuda for the cruise! Photo by Fadime Stemmer.

Members of the cruise team work together to prepare the CTD rosette for deployment. Photo by Claire Garfield.

🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday
Team work makes the dream work! We asked our cruise team and they agree - team work is essential for troubleshooting and creating a positive environment for all on board 🚢, laying the groundwork for forging lasting connections that last beyond the cruise! 🧪

Scientists from @microbialplanet.bsky.social 🌊 hosted a important panel at COP30 Ocean Pavilion

Advocating for the Invisible Microbial Majority That Underpins a Healthy Planet Panel

ccomp-stc.org/microbes-at-...

📣 Special thanks to our moderator and panelists for representing microbes 🦠 in the #oceanpavilion @cop30brazil.bsky.social in the only microbial panel at #cop30.

Microbes play key roles in climate. They need to be considered in navigating what happens next for our planet 🌎!

Special thanks to Elizabeth Kujawinski @whoi.edu, Sonya Dyhrman @climate.columbia.edu, Pearl Mitchell @deakinuniversity.bsky.social, Marcia Macedo @columbiauniversity.bsky.social @woodwellclimate.bsky.social, & @marirs.bsky.social @universityofhawaii.bsky.social @icrs.bsky.social for participating!

Flyer advertising the COP30 panel session in the Ocean Pavilion titled: Advocating for the Invisible Microbial Majority that Underpins a Healthy Planet. The panel is scheduled to take place on Nov. 19 from 1:30 - 2:30 pm in the Ocean Pavilion, PV-D120.

Ready to learn about how microbes 🦠 are stakeholders and players in what happens next for our planet 🌎? If you are @cop30brazil.bsky.social #COP30, please attend our panel from 1:30 - 2:30 today (Nov. 19) in the #OceanPavilion. Details in the flyer! @whoi.edu @climate.columbia.edu
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Are you @cop30brazil.bsky.social #COP30 and interested in learning more about microbes 🦠 and how they impact our planet 🌎? Don't miss the panel hosted by our Director Elizabeth Kujawinski and Sonya Dyhrman @climate.columbia.edu tomorrow (Nov. 19) starting at 1:30 pm in the #OceanPavilion!
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📣 Microbes 🦠 are a key player & stakeholder in what happens next for our planet 🌎. C-CoMP will host a panel this week at #COP30 in the #OceanPavilion to discuss how to include the invisible microbial majority in a sustainable future. ccomp-stc.org/microbes-at-...
@whoi.edu @cop30brazil.bsky.social

🌊🦠#FieldworkFriday
Interested in learning more about the people, samples, and research activities that were conducted on the C-CoMP March 2025 cruise (@biosstation.bsky.social ➡️ @whoi.edu)? Well if you are, you are in luck! Check out our AE2504 cruise report: zenodo.org/records/1675...
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📣 C-CoMP Pub Alert!
Check out this new paper that investigates how bacteria control heterotrophic respiration and net community production in the Sargasso Sea 🌊. Congrats to the authors 🎉!
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Thank you so much!

Hi Manu, can you add this account to the ocean feed-list? We are the Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet, a science and technology research center focused on understanding microbially-mediated cycling of metabolites in the surface ocean. Website here: ccomp-stc.org. Thanks for the help!

📣New preprint alert!
Check out this new preprint by Zhu et al. that quantifies and compares labile exometabolites from six axenic strains of marine phytoplankton 🌊 to identify key chemical currencies within the marine chemical-microbial network! 🧪🦠

Henry's PhD research investigated how marine phytoplankton adapt their lipid membranes to a range of environmental conditions. Now he studies how phytoplankton may cycle carbon differently in future oceans that are hotter & more acidic using culturing and 'omics methods.

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.

📣#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 🌊.

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.

🌊🦠#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🐦!

Congrats @maratimes.bsky.social!

The conditions that lead to successful infection of phytoplankton in the wild are poorly understood. Annika seeks to unravel the role of nutrient stress in determining susceptibility to viral infection and apply this knowledge to isolate novel phytoplankton-virus pairs.

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.

📣#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.

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.

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!

Wrapping up a great week of science with some light LEGO dehydration synthesis! @microbialplanet.bsky.social
@fuuchan20.bsky.social
@maksaito.bsky.social

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.

And more photos:

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.

🌊🦠#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!

Mariana is motivated to explore questions at the intersection of physics, biogeochemistry, and biology, to understand how these processes interact + what role they play in the global state of the ocean. They are excited to apply to doctoral programs in oceanography this fall!

Alongside this work, they collaborate with their C-CoMP B2P cohort to study how ocean extremes (#marineheatwaves 🌡️), impact phytoplankton ecosystem dynamics through satellite observations 🦠🛰️.

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.

📣#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 🌊.

A big thank you to all the folks at @biosstation.bsky.social, @whoi.edu, and the crew and Captain of the R/V Atlantic Explorer for making this research and cruise possible!

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.

🌊🦠#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!

Congrats @maratimes.bsky.social!!!