PORT ARANSAS, Texas — A researcher at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas, has the latest technology that allows the oceans smalled creatures to be seen on a large scale.
Professor Tracy Villarreal has dedicated his research to studying phytoplankton.
If you don't know, phytoplankton is like the grass of the sea. The plankton takes in carbon dioxide and turns it into food for marine life.
Villarreal said there has been an increase in carbon dioxide in the ocean, so he is trying to study if that is due to there being less phytoplankton in the water.
According to Villarreal, he used to have to scuba dive to see phytoplankton for himself, but that was not the most accurate way to do it.
"Once you go below even just a few feet, tends to look the same color so your eyes can only really pick out the big stuff," Villarreal said.
Thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation, Villarreal now has a camera worth $138,000 that can do all the hard work for him. Before, he could only study phytoplankton in drops of water a time, but with his new underwater camera he can study the organisms in a literal ton of water at a time.
Villarreal said he got to use his hi-tech camera for the first time on an expedition in Hawaii. He plans to explore more in January.
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