In labs around the world, the ocean is being kept in jars. Some of it is alive, bubbling in flasks, while some lies frozen in liquid nitrogen. These marine biobanks are collections of coral cells, algae, bacteria and other living materials that scientists are working to preserve before warming seas and disappearing habitats consume them.
These aren't just collections for the future, but records of the present. Part archive and part insurance policy, biobanks are emerging as a front line of marine science, as climate change reshapes the life of the ocean faster than researchers can study it.
