{"id":2264,"date":"2026-07-22T01:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imo.udec.cl\/?page_id=2264"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:24:52","slug":"bioreactor-i-falkor-two","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/imo.udec.cl\/en\/expediciones-y-observatorio\/expediciones-internacionales\/bioreactor-i-falkor-two\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0BioReactor-I \u2013 FALKOR (two)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BioReactor-I \u2013 FALKOR (two)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n
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General Description and Scientific Significance<\/b><\/p>\n

The BioReactor-I (Animals as Living Bioreactors \u2013 Part I) expedition was conducted between January 19 and February 24, 2026, aboard the research vessel R\/V Falkor (too) of the Schmidt Ocean Institute (United States). The mission brought together an international team of researchers from the Americas, Europe, and Oceania to investigate one of the ocean's most important yet least understood biological processes: the daily vertical migration of marine organisms and its contribution to the global carbon cycle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The expedition was led by Dr. Anitra Ingalls of the University of Washington, in collaboration with the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Schmidt Sciences Virtual Institute for Ocean Biogeochemistry, bringing together specialists in biological oceanography, microbiology, biogeochemistry, marine ecology, and numerical modeling. The Millennium Institute of Oceanography (IMO) participated through Dr. Rub\u00e9n Escribano, Dr. Susana Cabrera, and Nicol\u00e1s Bralic, who contributed their expertise in zooplankton ecology and vertical migration processes in the southeastern Pacific.<\/span><\/p>\n

Field operations were conducted in the deep waters of the Southwestern Atlantic, off the coast of South America, combining direct observations using the ROV SuBastian, sampling of mesopelagic organisms with the MOCNESS-10 net system, oceanographic profiling with CTD-Rosette systems, scientific acoustics, and drifting sediment traps. This integrated suite of technologies enabled researchers to simultaneously investigate organism behavior, gut microbiomes, organic matter transformation, and carbon fluxes to the deep ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the expedition's principal scientific contributions was testing the hypothesis that the digestive tracts of mesopelagic organisms function as natural \"living bioreactors,\" where microbial communities transform ingested organic matter into biomolecules and compounds that are subsequently transported to great depths. Understanding these processes will improve estimates of the ocean's capacity to sequester atmospheric carbon and strengthen models projecting the response of the global climate system to climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n

BioReactor-I also represents a major milestone in IMO's international engagement, reinforcing its leadership in deep-ocean biogeochemical research and strengthening collaborations with some of the world's leading oceanographic research institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Scientific Objectives<\/b><\/p>\n