Most of the world experiences drastic seasonal variation in the
amount of food that is available throughout the year. In deep-
sea habitats as well as the poles a single or sometimes few
pulses of food provide nourishment for the entire year. Now you
may wonder what that means to you? Why does it matter what
happens in the deep, dark ocean or far away in a frozen waste
land? The answer is that these communities decide how much of
the carbon that we are putting into the atmosphere stays in the
ocean, only to be released again and how much is buried for
geologic time periods (meaning largely beyond the age of
humans). However, we know very little about how the biology of
how these habitats actually function, what makes them decide
whether they break down and release the carbon and nitrogen or
burry for, as far as humans are concerned, ever? Quite simply,
that is the goal of this research. The poles provide access to
communities that have similar seasonality as the deep sea but at
a depth that allows manipulative