Scientists at the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography will join researchers around the globe in a worldwide Ocean Sampling Day on Saturday, June 21. Ocean Sampling Day is the first global, simultaneous sampling of microbes in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters.

The sampling will be conducted at more than 160 marine research locations from Iceland to Antarctica and from Moorea in French Polynesia to South Africa. The sampling program will support international missions to provide information on the diversity of microbes, their function and their potential economic benefits.

Skidaway Institute scientists will take samples in two locations. One team will collect and process samples from the Skidaway River, immediately adjacent to the Skidaway Institute campus. This activity also will be part of an on-going water-quality monitoring program that Skidaway Institute has supported for more than 25 years. A second group will team-up with scientists from NOAA’s Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, and collect samples from Gray’s Reef. The 14,000-acre marine sanctuary is located approximately 17 miles off the coast of Georgia’s Sapelo Island.

The sampling program is coordinated jointly by Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany and the University of Oxford, UK. The effort was launched under the umbrella of the European-funded project Micro B3, which aims to boost marine research and innovation opportunities.

Additional information on the global Ocean Sampling Day project is available, http://www.microb3.eu/osd.