After five years, with more than 25 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, six dedicated research cruises, and more than 45 presentations at national and international meetings, the BIOS-SCOPE (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences - Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology) program has received five years of additional funding from the Simons Foundation International to continue its study of the microbial oceanography of the Sargasso Sea.

"The Simons Foundation International has a long history of supporting collaborative research into marine microbial oceanography," said Bill Curry, president and CEO of BIOS and program leader for BIOS-SCOPE. "We're grateful for the opportunity to continue BIOS-SCOPE's valuable collaborations and interdisciplinary efforts to provide insight into this unique ecosystem."

BIOS-SCOPE was founded in 2015 with a team of 22 researchers from Bermuda, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom representing BIOS, Oregon State University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Exeter, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The collaboration's research efforts focus on the Sargasso Sea, a region in the North Atlantic Ocean that was chosen for two reasons.

First, its geographical location--within a subtropical gyre, or system of circulating ocean currents--is representative of much of the global ocean. This particular location experiences distinct seasonal patterns, which helps scientists understand the consequences of global change, such as increases in average sea surface temperature.