The Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is unique in its focus on marine phytoplankton, the microscopic floating plants that form the base of the food chain in the world's oceans. The Lab is actively used by resident and visiting scientists. Dr. Maureen Keller is a resident scientists at the Lab, and she has embarked on an ambitious plan to expand the Lab's ability to grow phytoplankton in the laboratory under carefully controlled conditions. These new lab facilities proposed by Dr. Keller would facilitate novel research into the growth and physiology of marine plankton, and would allow culturing of polar species at Bigelow Lab for the first time. The proposed expansion of the Bigelow Lab's culturing facility would accommodate more research projects and would facilitate new avenues of research. This expansion would establish a unique capability for controlled temperature culturing down to polar conditions, and would increase the impact of the Lab's other facilities, such as a recently acquired transmission electron microscope and an important reference collection of marine phytoplankton.
