Bochdansky is CCPO Speaker on Video Analysis of Deep Sea Systems

Alexander Bochdansky, an Old Dominion University oceanographer whose research has turned up interesting observations about bits of matter in the deep ocean, will present a seminar Monday, Oct. 31, at ODU's Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography.

The talk, "Exploration and Analysis of Particles in Deep-Sea Pelagic Systems Using Video and Digital Inline Holography," will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 3200 of the Innovation Research Park Building 1. It is free and open to the public, as is a reception that begins at 3 p.m.

Bochdansky, an associate professor of ocean, earth and atmospheric sciences, has developed new ways to study particles - often pieces of decaying plant or animal life - that are continuously sinking through the ocean water column. These particles are main contributors to the movement of carbon into the deep ocean and they also provide organic nutrients to deep-ocean creatures.

With climate change focusing attention on how carbon in distributed in the atmosphere, on land and in the seas, scientists have struggled to understand the ways carbon gets to the deep ocean and how much stays there. The particles that are the targets of Bochdansky's research change continuously, dissolving or else growing through coagulation. They are too fragile to be studied by more conventional means that would require water samples to be retrieved from the ocean depths. This has led to his use of video analysis and digital inline holographic microscopy to study the particles as they exist in the deep sea.