Anchialine Biogeochemistry Research Team returns to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

By Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center December 12, 2018

The Anchialine Biogeochemistry Research Team has returned to the Yucatan Peninsula Mexico to continue investigating how life persists within underwater coastal caves beneath the tropical forest.

The most recent publication authored by field team members David Brankovits of the USGS and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, John Pohlman of the USGS and Jake Emmert of Moody Gardens describes how rainfall and other external factors support a methane-based ecosystem within the caves of this subterranean estuary. For this expedition we have developed collaborations with Joshua Dean of the University of Liverpool, Jana Milucka of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and Moritz Lehmann of the Universität Basel to delve deeper into the mysteries of this fascinating ecological habitat and critical groundwater resource.

Photograph of USGS personnel preparing to dive in Yucatan Peninsula — USGS personnel preparing to dive in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Photograph of USGS personnel collecting water samples in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico — Collecting water samples in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

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October 15, 2018

U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project

The USGS Gas Hydrates Project has been making contributions to advance understanding of US and international gas hydrates science for at least three decades. The research group working on gas hydrates at the USGS is among the largest in the US and has expertise in all the major geoscience disciplines, as well as in the physics and chemistry of gas hydrates, the geotechnical properties of hydrate...

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Deep Sea Exploration, Mapping and Characterization

U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project

October 15, 2018

U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project

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December 13, 2018

Hydrologic controls of methane dynamics in karst subterranean estuaries Hydrologic controls of methane dynamics in karst subterranean estuaries

Karst subterranean estuaries (KSEs) extend into carbonate platforms along 12% of all coastlines. A recent study has shown that microbial methane (CH4) consumption is an important component of the carbon cycle and food web dynamics within flooded caves that permeate KSEs. In this study, we obtained high‐resolution (~2.5‐day) temporal records of dissolved methane concentrations and its...

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David Brankovits, John W. Pohlman, Neil K. Ganju, T.M. Iliffe, N. Lowell, E. Roth, S.P. Sylva, J.A. Emmert, L. L. Lapham

Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

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October 15, 2018