Dr. Kim Bernard’s student, Giulia Wood, examining krill samples. (Image credit: Dr. Kim Bernard) By Laura Stukonytė, IOC-UNESCO; Emma Heslop, IOC-UNESCO; Karen Evans, CSIRO; Gabrielle Canonico, NOAA; Kim Bernard, Oregon State University Zooplankton Observing in Changing Seas total of 39 months on the coldest continent of our planet across several research expeditions. While on a research vessel on their way to Palmer Station, Dr. Bernard’s team collected thousands of live krill from the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. These were then placed in tanks in the dark aquarium room where the teams could study how these tiny animals are affected by changing environmental conditions. “Zooplankton are an essential part of most marine food webs. If we speak about Antarctic krill specifically, blue whales, humpback whales, a whole variety of seals, pen -guins, and other seabirds all feed on it—some of them exclusively. And if they are not feeding on krill, they are feeding on something else that does,” says Dr. Bernard. “Krill and other zooplankton also play a major role in various biogeochemical cycles. For example, they take carbon out of the surface waters and transfer it down to the deep sea, which is important for our climate,” she adds. Zooplankton, a key component of most marine eco -systems, are rapidly responding to climate change. A new paper shows how various species are affected and highlights that coordinated, sustained ocean observa -tions will be essential to understand how ecosystems will continue to function in our changing environment. It’s an early winter morning at Palmer Station, Antarctica. A team of researchers jump into their thermal, water -proof clothes and head down to the aquarium room that houses tanks filled with Antarctic krill—small yet highly important marine zooplankton that are a keystone species in the food web of the Southern Ocean. The temperature in the room is around zero degrees Celsius; it’s cold, damp, and almost completely dark. “We can only use red lights when we come down here. White light stresses the krill out at this time of year,” says Dr. Kim Bernard, Biological Oceanographer at Oregon State University. Having dreamt of working in Antarctica since she was a teenager, Dr. Bernard has now spent a 40 eco OCEAN OBSERVATION 2023