
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…
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…
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
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…
Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
When most people think about algal blooms, they envision bright green water. However, blooms can also be dark red, invoking the colour of blood. A number of groups can generate red pigment blooms including flagellates like red-tide species Karenia brevis and Heterosigma akashiwo, Alexandrium spp. (Shellfish poisoning), the green algae Botryococcus braunii turning…
Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Did you know that plankton can get sunburn? UV radiation can affect microbes, #phytoplankton and #zooplankton by causing cellular molecular or genetic damage. Whil…
Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
Plankton have #parasites, just like any other organism, but in some cases, this leads to improved feeding conditions. #Daphnia zooplankton must often feed on freshwater cy…
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…
Weekend #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 …
Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
For a while, there has been concern for how the ocean's #ecosystem is being modeled. Too often it is oversimplified with #phytoplankon and
Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
While less discussed, there is a similar circulation to the AMOC in the #Antarctic called the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation (SMOC). This is also vital to deep circulation, algal productivity, ecosystem function, and the global