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@filmfacts@social.tchncs.de
2025-10-16 14:14:23

#PlanktonSocial
Tja, was soll ich sagen? Funktioniert einfach :-) So können sich #Blogger/innen ohne eine große Plattform untereinander vernetzen und gleichzeitig die eigene Basis und Domain nutzen.

Plankton.social
Tja, was soll ich sagen? Funktioniert einfach :-) So können sich Blogger/innen ohne eine große Plattform untereinander vernetzen und gleichzeitig die eigene Basis und Domain nutzen.

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@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-10-18 13:30:57

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
You've likely watched a police procedural where the lab states the drowning was suspicious because of algae. The shells of diatoms have long been used in forensic #limnology because they are made of glass, so preserve very well.

image/jpeg a wide diversity of shapes of coloured glass shells are seen in a microscopic image. CC BY-SA 4.0.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-11-15 14:30:04

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Since 2011, millions of tons of a brown algae called Sargassum has washed onto beaches in the Caribbean. The rotting seaweed releases toxic hydrogen sulfide, smelling of rotten eggs, impacting tourism and shore access. It was initially thought Saharan iron dust was the cause, but new #science

image/jpeg a man stands with a shovel against a huge pile of seaweed on a sandy tropical beach. Photo credit: Michael Owen 2015 Cancun Mexico.
image/jpeg a map of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, shown in red along the equator from Africa to the Caribbean Sea, south of the Sargasso Sea. Typical ocean currents in the North Atlantic show the belt moves from east to west along the equator. CC-BY-SA 4.0. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.768470
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-11-08 14:51:58

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Most plankton are tiny, making it very difficult to visualize their internal structures. Enter "expansion microscopy" a technique that embeds the organism in a gel which absorbs water and expands up to 16x, yet retains all of the internal cell details. This means you can view structures normally too small to see with light

image/jpeg a microscope image of several examples of an organism with two flagella showing distinctive purple, blue, yellow and white structures. Successive greyscale images show the cell structures highlighted by staining using NHS (protein), MTs (microtubules), Cetn (centrin) and DNA. Prymnesium faveolatum CC-BY-SA 4.0. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.09.027
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-10-11 13:45:28

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Heliozoans are a group of amoeboid protists found commonly in both fresh and saltwater. They were termed sun-animalcules due to their spherical shape and distinctive radiating microtubules, which support axiopods used to capture food and facilitate movement. Some will also capture symbiotic algal cells which provide energy through photosynthesis. Heliozoa is &quo…

image/png a microscopic image of a spherical yellow organism filled with green dots and having numerous spines radiating from the surface. A scale of 50 microns indicates the sphere is about twice that measure. James L. Van Etten, Irina V. Agarkova, David D. Dunigan CC BY-SA 4.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viruses-12-00020-g001_Chlorella_Virus_(C).png#mw-jump-to-license
image/jpeg a black and white diagram of a spherical cell with many radiating spines. The interior of the cell has many dark or white inclusions. Source unknown. 1888. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ott%C5%AFv_slovn%C3%ADk_nau%C4%8Dn%C3%BD_-_obr%C3%A1zek_%C4%8D._035_wb.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-09-06 13:45:55

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Many sessile marine organisms produce planktonic larvae for dispersal. This is true of the Bryozoa ("moss animals") in both freshwater and saltwater, which are often mistaken for sponges or corals. Larvae widely range in shape and lifestyle, but some larvae called cyphonautes can spend weeks feeding in the plankton. They are a distinctly flattened trian…

Side by side images of a distinctly triangular microscopic organism. On the left is a microscope image of a brown, mostly transparent bell shape with organelles inside and cilia around the edge (CC BY-SA 4.0). On the right is an anatomy diagram of the same organism with labels of: apical sense organ, ciliated ridge, inhalent chamber, and corona at the bottom. Taken from Hayward & Ryland (1998).
image/jpeg a clump of bright yellow-orange feathery balls are seen in an underwater photo on a reef. Bryozoans at Kreef Reef, Peter Southwood (CC SA 4.0)
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-09-27 13:45:35

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
This is the phyllosoma larva of a Spiny "Rock" Lobster, which can spend as much as a year drifting in the plankton.
#MarineBiology #science

image/jpeg a darkfield micrograph of a spider-like transparent crustacean larva with extremely long legs and bulging stalked eyes. CC BY-SA 4.0
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-11-01 13:48:18

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Velella velella is the by-the-wind sailor, a type of floating colonial siphonophore, almost like a tiny version of portuguese man-of-war. It is often found in large numbers on beaches because they have a "sail" set at 45° either to the left or right. As a result, they can sail differently depending on wind direction. It is thought both forms are mixed m…

image/jpeg a dark blue jelly-like creature with a tall transparent vertical sail at 45 degrees to its body is seen on a sandy beach. Photo by Brian Bull KLCC https://www.klcc.org/environment/2019-05-31/oregon-beaches-experiencing-blue-tide-of-velella-velella
image/jpeg thousands of bright blue gelatinous creatures are seen covering a sandy beach. Photo from University of Oregon.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-08-30 13:45:39

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
While algal #blooms are often associated with summer, they can occur in any season. SE #Australia is experiencing a prolonged bloom of Karenia mikimotoi (same genus as Flor…

image/jpeg two microscope images of a golden brown coloured algae cell on the left and a black and white SEM image on the right showing the distinct grooves, one lateral, on vertical where the flagella are located. Images from NOAA and WHOI.
image/jpeg photo of a person on a beach which has extensive piles of brownish white foam. Photo from ABC Caroline Horn. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-17/waitpinga-beach-foam-investigation/105060888
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-09-20 13:45:49

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Meroplankton is a grouping of "temporary zooplankton" that only spend a portion of their life cycle there. One example is the nauplius larvae of barnacles. Though they don't look like it, barnacles are crustaceans, so they have nauplius stage for dispersal. They have very distinctive "horns" and are extremely common in plankton samples, wh…

image/jpeg a darkfield microscope image of a translucent wedge shaped crustacean zooplankton with 4 sets of spiny legs, a dark red eye spot and two distinctive pointed horn spines at the head. CC BY-SA 4.0.
image/jpeg a group of cream coloured barnacles are attached to grey rocks. They are closed tight. Northern Acorn Barnacles, Ryan Hodnett CC BY-SA 4.0.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-10-25 14:16:33

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The poles are cold and dark half the year, so you might think these areas were low productivity. Nope. These are some of the highest productivity and efficient food webs on the planet, which is why whales will travel half the globe to feed here. When sunlight returns in spring, long days and nutrients drive intense blooms. There was a question of nutrient sources…

image/jpeg an illustration of the Arctic productivity cycle showing the sun rising higher in April to provide sunlight to support the growth of algae and phytoplankton. The summer sun drives production of dense bloos in June, leading to growth of grazing zooplankton which drives vertical flux of nutrients via fecal matter to the deep waters. Production gradually declines during as the phytoplankton use up nutrients and reduced sunlight. Illustration: Alexander Keck & Paul Wassmann (1993), modif…
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.social
2025-08-23 14:00:45

Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Last week, I mentioned a ciliate that can cause red tide #blooms. Mesodinium rubrum is an example of a unicellular organism that can both injest food and photosynthesize. Its main prey are cryptomonad

image/jpeg a graphic drawing of Mesodinium rubrum of a round organism with extended spines consuming a Geminigera cryophila cell that has two flagella. Text reads "Steals prey nucleus (kleptokaryon) and other organelles. Final diagram shows organelles inside the cell. From Johnson et al. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.027
image/jpeg a microscope photograph of an oblong orange - brown cell with distinctive radiating spines from the sides. Mesodinium rubrum from NOAA, public domain.