@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Ostracods are crustaceans that look like tiny clams. "Seed shrimp" have distinct shell-like carapaces that are well preserved in the fossil record and found in many waterbodies in benthic or pelagic realms. Planktonic ostracods extend their antennae and appendages to swim and capture food. They can exhibit green or blue bioluminescence and are very nume…
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
While crustaceans are common as #zooplankton, insects are very rare, but one group is found globally in freshwaters. Chaoborus (phantom midge or glassworm) spend the majority of their life as predaceous plankton, but are familiar to many when the adults emerge lake…
@filmfacts@social.tchncs.de#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.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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…
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Many aquatic animals are described as "filter feeders" but this is not functionally correct since it would require water forced through a mesh. Instead, most zooplankton, including copepods, are suspension feeders. They create feeding current gyres using appendages, and use spiny modified ones (maxillae) to intercept individual algal particles and move …
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Tintinnids ("tinkling bells") are ciliates found in fresh and saltwater known for their characteristic vase-shaped shell called a lorica. These are formed of tough proteins, incorporating minerals from the water and vary considerably by species. The shell offers protection and optimizes feeding on phytoplankton, bacteria and flagellates. These small pro…
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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…
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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…
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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.
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
An interesting survival mechanism of zooplankton is the production of resistant resting or diapause eggs. Calanoid and harpacticoid copepods, rotifers, and cladocerans (as ephippia) do this when conditions are poor due to overcrowding, predation, drought, or water quality. These eggs can hatch after decades or even centuries in an egg bank. This helps to explain …
@DrPlanktonguy@ecoevo.socialWeekend #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…
