Know Your OceanBIOSMore often than not, when asked to think about the ocean people picture a plain blue background teaming with life: their imaginations conjuring up everything from dolphins to seaweed.Ocean waters are more than a backdrop for myriad plant and animal life; the oceans themselves are a complex and intricate system of currents. Affected by everything from temperature and salinity to the rotation of the Earth, these currents play a vital role in life on Earth.Gyres are some of the largest current systems within the oceans. They are giant, rotating currents formed by air-wind interactions and the rotation of the Earth.Though there are different categorizations of gyres, there are only five major gyres in the world: two in the Pacific Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean, and one in the Indian Ocean. Bermuda and the Sargasso Sea are located on the western edge of the North Atlantic Gyre.Beginning in the Caribbean and ending in the northern Atlantic, the strong, western current of the North Atlantic Gyre is known as the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream, along with its slower moving counterpart the North Atlantic Drift, sends warm, equatorial waters up the east coast of the United States and eventually over towards Europe.Without these currents, the weather in Western Europe would be as cold as CanadaCalgary, for example, is at the same latitude as London. In turn, Bermuda would be a much less pleasant place to live.Unlike the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Drift is not well defined or fast moving, but its meandering pull forms large whirlpools of current, known as eddies. The eddies formed by the North Atlantic Drift last for centuries and are several hundreds of kilometers in diameter. They are vital to the transportation of nutrients within the water body. Scientists at BIOS are constantly monitoring the eddies around Bermuda using observation sites, remote sensing techniques, and ship-based observations from BIOS’s research vessel the Atlantic Explorer.Ocean currents are also extremely important in understanding climate change. By pulling down masses of water that are cooled and enriched with carbon, ocean circulation plays a crucial role in carbon sequestration, absorbing nearly a third of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere every year. Scientists in BIOS’s Marine Biogeochemistry laboratory are studying the biological, chemical, and physical processes that control the ocean carbon cycle. As a major regulator of climate, carbon studies are essential to understanding and anticipating climate impacts.With their complex network beneath the blue surface, the oceans cover over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and affect more than most people ever realize. Scientists at BIOS and around the world are doing their best to study and understand these complex systems in order to manage healthy oceans and maintain them well into the future.