Falkor expedition discovers 31 new species off Brazil
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- Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor (too), crewed by 24 international experts from the US, Australia, Brazil, and Japan, sailed from Salvador, Bahia to survey midwater ecosystems in international waters off Brazil and identified 31 new species in two weeks.
- Dr. Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the expedition's chief scientist, said midwater — the zone between the seafloor and the sunlit surface — encompasses 90% of Earth's living space yet remains one of the least-explored habitats.
- The "Squid" microscope, a spinning wheel confocal laser system, let researchers, for the first time on a ship, observe living 3D cellular structure of microbial life, showing cells interacting and building skeletons without the usual two-week staining and mounting process.
- The 31 discoveries include an amphipod crustacean, a fast-moving gossamer worm, nine jellyfish, seven siphonophores, seven comb jellies, four larvaceans (tadpole-like mucus-house dwellers more closely related to humans than most invertebrates), and two giant rhizarians visible to the naked eye.
- The expedition coincided with the Trump administration's plans to dismantle the $368m (£278m) Ocean Observatories Initiative, which uses more than 900 instruments to monitor ocean health, climate variability, and marine biodiversity.
- Osborn said the team documented extensive vertical migration — creatures rise from the depths to feed near the surface at night — a process she noted has considerable influence on the ocean's drawdown of carbon.
Why it matters: The 31-species haul shows how under-explored midwater — 90% of Earth's living space — remains, and the Squid microscope let researchers, for the first time on a ship, image living microbial cells in 3D. The findings land as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the $368m Ocean Observatories Initiative that long-term ocean monitoring depends on.
