Christina Kellogg, Ph.D.

In this image, three funnels containing seawater samples from coral mesocosms are passed through 0.025 um pore size filters. The samples have already been filtered through 0.2 um pore size filters to remove larger microorganisms such as bacteria, so the 0.025 um filters will capture primarily the viral size fraction of the mesocosm microbial community.

Diadema antillarum, the long-spined sea urchin, is an ecologically important species in Caribbean coral reef habitats where it controls algal growth and coverage and helps keep reef surfaces clear for corals to grow and settle. In early 2022, the remaining D. antillarum populations began experiencing mass mortality in the Caribbean.

Diadema antillarum, the long-spined sea urchin, is an ecologically important species in Caribbean coral reef habitats where it controls algal growth and coverage and helps keep reef surfaces clear for corals to grow and settle. In early 2022, the remaining D. antillarum populations began experiencing mass mortality in the Caribbean.

Diadema antillarum, the long-spined sea urchin, is an ecologically important species in Caribbean coral reef habitats where it controls algal growth and coverage and helps keep reef surfaces clear for corals to grow and settle. In early 2022, the remaining D. antillarum populations began experiencing mass mortality in the Caribbean.

Diadema antillarum, the long-spined sea urchin, is an ecologically important species in Caribbean coral reef habitats where it controls algal growth and coverage and helps keep reef surfaces clear for corals to grow and settle. In early 2022, the remaining D. antillarum populations began experiencing mass mortality in the Caribbean.

Live Lophelia pertusa is white because the calcium carbonate skeleton shows through the nonpigmented coral tissue. Dead coral is soon covered in a brown biofilm. The red-orange squat lobster (Eumunida picta) in the center of the photo is prepared to catch its dinner.

A bright orange Brisingid starfish is seen in the center of the image. The background is a thicket of live (white) and dead (brown) Lophelia coral. Several squat lobsters (Eumunida picta) can be seen in the coral, as well as a blue encrusting sponge and an urchin (foreground, lower left).

Live Lophelia pertusa is white because the calcium carbonate skeleton shows through the nonpigmented coral tissue. Dead coral is soon covered in a brown biofilm. The red-orange squat lobster (Eumunida picta) in the center of the photo is prepared to catch its dinner.

A black-bellied rosefish (Helicolenus dactylopterus) peaks out of the Lophelia coral. Behind the fish, a squat lobster (Eumunida picta) hangs upside down from a coral branch.

A conger eel (Conger oceanicus) cruises through a thicket of Lophelia pertusa coral.

A cleaner shrimp (Plesionika sp.) with vivid blue eyes rests in a coral thicket next to a red soft coral (Anthomastus agassizii).

Fish like this Atlantic Roughy (Hoplostethus occidentalis) congregate near deep-sea corals (background is Lophelia pertusa coral).

Close-up of a squat lobster, Eumunida picta, in a thicket of Lophelia pertusa coral.

Close-up image of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa, with polyps extended. The coral polyps eat by grabbing tiny suspended particulates (visible against the dark water background). The bright orange claws of a squat lobster (Eumunida picta) can be seen peeking out from behind the coral branches.

A fish (Gephyroberyx darwinii) peeks through a forest of soft corals and anemones at about 300 meters in depth in the Gulf of Mexico.

Collected from more than 1000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, this fragile brittle star clings to a soft coral.  These deep-sea coral ecosystems ar biodiversity hot-spots in the deep ocean, but they are also vulnerable to climate change issues such as increased temperature and ocean acidification.

Christmas tree worms have made their home on a brain coral. Tropical corals reefs are complex ecosystems, but are rapidly being lost to bleaching and disease, linked to increasing water temperatures.

A queen trigger fish and a green turtle feeding together on a reef in Belize.

A tiny brittle star (the central disc is smaller than a dime) clings to the branches of a soft coral in a sample bucket brought into the shipboard laboratory from a submersible dive. This creature makes its home on the deep, dark ocean floor.