The ocean floor has been depicted in the most detailed microscopic detail yet with the help of the Benthic Underwater Microscope (Bum).
Bum can study "millimetre-scale" activity on the ocean bed and has already captured images of polyps 'kissing', algae spreading across reefs, coral reefs 'fighting' each other for space and for chemicals.
Bum, developed by UC San Diego, is a combination of a water-resistant camera and a high-res, high-magnification lens. The lens can also "see shapes in 3D", which allows a closer and more accurate image.
Because the camera is so high-res, the team hopes it can study particles that live on and around the coral to understand how microbes in the water that flow around reefs help help them stay alive. Because of the strength of the instrument, Bum can capture even single cells.
"The instrument offers a platform for technology development," said lead author Andrew Mullen in [i]Nature[i/], where the study has been published. "A variety of enhanced imaging methods may be incorporated into future designs to provide additional information on micro-scale physical and biological phenomena."
"We hope insights from the current instrument design and deployment methods will provide a foundation for both increasingly powerful in situ imaging, and a wave of bringing lab research into the ocean. This in situ viewpoint enables novel investigations on basic marine research and will provide the means to connect theoretical lab work to the natural environment."