Mak Saito

@maksaito.bsky.social

Biogeochemist, oceanographer, proteomics scientist, guitarist for Deep Six, half-Scottish half-Japanese American

🌊❄️🧪 🇦🇶 Please share: We have learned that the National Science Foundation is moving ahead with plans to decommission the U.S. Research Vessel/Ice Breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer this October. If you care about Antarctic research, please read on (1/n)

🌊 ↪️↩️ Deep ocean currents play a pivotal role in shaping the diversity and function of microbial life across the South Pacific Ocean, according to a groundbreaking study led by @jcvi.org and Scripps Oceanography scientists. More on the study published by @science.org. ⬇️

Study Reveals how Deep Ocean Currents Shape Microbial Life across South Pacific

A groundbreaking study in the journal Science, has unveiled how deep ocean currents—known as global overturning circulation—play a pivotal role in shaping the diversity and function of microbial life ...

scripps.ucsd.edu

One visible impact of the illegal firing of NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLERL) employees - no 2025 data updates for water quality in W Lake Erie, meaning no public info on the harmful algal blooms. We detected toxins in April, but we lost the folks who organize & report this data

NOAA-GLERL WLE Weekly Data

Visual archive of weekly sampling data from Western Lake Erie during the 2012 through roughly present year harmful algal bloom seasons

glerl.noaa.gov

Is the Zinc Hypothesis true? (Zn control of marine primary production). Apparently yes: by multiple independent lines of evidence, including zinc stress protein biomarkers, in the low pCO2 waters of a coastal Antarctica bloom. Thesis work by Riss Kell and many wonderful collabs. In Open review BG. 🌊

Zinc stimulation of phytoplankton in a low carbon dioxide, coastal Antarctic environment: evidence for the Zn hypothesis

Abstract. The ocean acts as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and resulting in substantial uptake of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. As biological processes in the oceans such as net pr...

egusphere.copernicus.org

Research universities are often the largest employers in their region. They are often the primary health care providers to communities. This funding shift will not only reduce US research leadership, it will put working people out of work and reduce healthcare access.

Alondra Nelson@alondra.bsky.social · last yr.

Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.

Rapid Zinc uptake rates in Antarctica with a new stable isotope method, by former student Riss. If you know how easy it is to contaminate for zinc you’ll appreciate this study.

Riss Kell, PhD@drkell.bsky.social · 2y ago

Hello bluesky! I am so happy to share that some of my Antarctic work was published today in BG: bg.copernicus.org/articles/21/.... This paper is seven (!) years in the making! Zinc is an essential micronutrient for phytoplankton, and is uptaken rapidly (biogeochem modelers please take note!)