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@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-03-07 14:30:10

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
While I have often talked about eutrophication (high nutrients leading to excess algae production), systems worldwide have also undergone oligotrophication: productivity reduction from nutrient decline or ecosystem changes. While lakes becoming clearer is often viewed positively, this results in food web alterations and loss of culturally and commercially importa…

image/jpeg a solitary fish swims through extremely blue, clear water above a lake bottom. Still photo from documentary "All to Clear", by Inspired Planet Productions, with permission. https://inspiredplanet.ca/alltooclear/
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-02-07 14:40:03

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Some calanoid copepods, including Calanus finmarchicus, spend 6-8 months of the winter in a dormancy state as juvenile copepodites deep under the thermocline at a depth of 500-1500m which reduces predation and energy use. This depth is determined by interaction of temperature and salinity of the water and the copepod's lipid content of waxy esters. They have …

image/jpeg a very transparent torpedo shaped crustacean is seen with its antennae folded along underneath its body. A large clear lipid sac is visible extending through the body dorsally. Photo by M. Runge.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-04-04 13:30:21

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
#ClimateChange is expected to modify food-webs in the oceans, including in nutrition. In an MIT modeling study scientists found that under heating scenarios, phytoplankon can shift from protein to carbohydrate and lipid dominated cell composition, which they hav…

image/png a microscope image of a variety of golden-coloured algae forms, with some forming long chains of cells while others are single-celled. Photo from Stephanie Anderson, University of Rhode Island, public domain.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-01-31 14:30:13

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
In recent years it has been found that phytoplankton productivity can be fueled by deep-sea hydrothermal vents. These vents produce iron and dense microbial blooms which can locally stimulate algae blooms, but it wasn't clear how this linkage of ecosystems separated by kilometers was possible. Now, an Antarctic study suggests that earthquakes can cause violen…

image/jpeg an underwater scene of a spiked column of yellow-green rock which is producing a stream of dense black smoke. Hydrothermal vent photo from Schmidt Ocean Institute.
image/jpeg a satellite image shows a swirling green algae bloom surrounded by the white of Antarctica in the Ross Sea. Photo from NASA, public domain.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-03-28 13:20:15

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Antarctic and North Pacific krill (Euphausia superba and pacifica) are a vital component of high latitude ecosystems as food for many species including whales. It is also a valued commercial fishery since they are 40% protein and 20% lipid. The quota of 620,000 tonnes was rapidly reached this past year for use as omega-3 oil, bait and animal feed. For perspectiv…

image/jpeg a colourfull shrimp-like creature with large eyes swims against a black background. Euphausia superba, the Antarctic Krill. Photo from Uwe Kils, CC BY-SA 3.0.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-02-14 14:30:49

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
A recent review in #Science highlights knowledge gaps of the "calcifying plankton" role for biogenic carbon removal in #climate models. Coccolithophores (algae), f…

image/jpeg a scanning electron microscopic image of an algae cells covered in round porous plates that look like inflatable lifeboats. Public domain.
image/jpeg a microscope image of a group of yellow, puffy, star-shaped plankton covered in little holes. Source Alain Couette CC-BY-SA 3.0.
image/jpeg a microscopic nearly transparent snail with a tight spiral shell extends its feeding structure. Source NOAA, public domain.
image/jpeg a microscopic photograph of a spherical organism covered in long pointed spikes. Rhabdosphaera clavigera from Montiero et al. 2016. CC-BY-SA 4.0.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-02-21 14:30:15

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Recently, Japanese researchers found some odd DNA in a dinoflagellate cell, which isn't really an Archaea, or a virus, but something else entirely. Apparently symbiotic or parasitic, with an extreme genome reduction, Sukunaarchaeum mirabile has the genetic coding to replicate, but not sustain itself metabolically, so is it life or not alive? Classifying organ…

image/jpeg a microscopic photograph of a dotted textured pink coloured single-celled organism with a dark orange inclusion. Citharistes regius, dinoflagellate by Takuro Nakayama, Mami Nomura, Akinori Yabuki, Kogiku Shiba, Kazuo Inaba & Yuji Inagaki. CC BY 4.0.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-01-24 14:47:26

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The polar vortex has caused a cold snap here, and the Great Lakes are rapidly forming ice. Under this thick ice, algae are growing. These are normal diatom phytoplankton, which change to form thick chains, attaching to the underside of the ice where light is optimal. We clearly see this brown ice and water in the wake of our icebreakers. This occurs near the pole…

image/jpeg an icebreaker ship flying a Canadian flag creates a path of broken ice, which is slightly green-brown tinged. CCGS Griffon, photo from S. Wilhelm.
image/jpeg a block of ice with a thick green-brown growth of algae is propped up on an expansive smooth ice-sheet. Photo from Aarhus University, Lars Chresten Lund-Hansen.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-03-21 13:30:55

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The equinox has returned, so let's talk spring phytoplankton blooms. Temperature and light has increased to create stratification (warm water layer floats over a denser one). Algae is kept near the surface, growing quickly without sinking into the depths. This is the Sverdrup (1953) Critical Depth Hypothesis.
Dr. David Shull at Western Washington Univ…

image/jpeg a range of bright green colours shows algae growth from a satellite photo of the Bering Sea off the snowy coast of Alaska. Source: NASA, public domain.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-01-17 14:30:48

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Hypoxia (low oxygen) is a serious environmental impact in some coastal marine and freshwater environments, often referred to as "dead zones". In spite of the name, while fish are absent, they can be teeming with crustacean and gelateous zooplankton, which have remarkable tolerance to hypoxia. Some cladoceran zooplankton even produce hemoglobin to store …

image/jpeg microscopic photo of two crustacean zooplankton side by side, with the one on the left distinctly red in colour while the right one is translucent. Image from CES University of Indiana.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-03-14 13:00:08

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Since March is the last week of Antarctic summer, it is appropriate to discuss a 2025 international study of the "seasonal vertical migration pump" which sequesters an enormous 65 million tonnes of carbon every year.

image/jpeg a collection of shrimp-like copepods are shown with bright orange tails and antennae. Long transparent blobs are found at the top of their carapaces which are fats and lipids. Photo from Daniel Mayor, University of Exeter.
image/jpeg a large red and white research ship floats in calm waters which reflect the rugged, icy, mountainous coast of Antarctica. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, British Antarctic Survey.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2026-01-10 14:33:10

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The White Cliffs of Dover are an iconic formation often seen on television or films that can be over 100 m high. The white colour is chalk "biomicrite" formed by the compacted deposits from dense blooms of Coccolithophore phytoplankton covered with distinct plates of calcite (coccoliths) in a shallow sea during the Late Cretaceous. The dark bands of fli…

image/jpeg a photo of tall, very white cliffs emerging from blue water. The cliff tops are covered in a thin layer of green grass, and a lighthouse is seen in the distance. Photo from Archangel12 CC-BY-SA 2.0.
image/jpeg a scanning electron micrograph of a spherical organism covered in oval plates with radiating spokes from a depressed center, looking similar to lifesaver candies. Scale bar suggests cell is about 8 microns in diameter. Photo from Jeremy Young CC-BY-SA 4.0.