Lmst

#Plankton are organisms that drift in water (or air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against currents (or wind).[1][2] Marine plankton

Weekend #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 protists are globally distributed and are a vitally important component of the microbial food web.
#science #biology

image/jpeg a collection of microscopic photos of organisms with a wide diversity of vase-shaped shells. Colour ranges from yellow to red to purple. A size bar indicates they are about 50 microns in width but can be many times longer. Taken from Dolan et al. 2013.
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Biology+and+Ecology+of+Tintinnid+Ciliates%3A+Models+for+Marine+Plankton-p-9780470671511

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 shows changes in upwelling of phosphorus led to increased symbiotic cyanobacteria, which fix atmospheric nitrogen to feed the seaweed.
https://scitechdaily.com/why-is-the-atlantic-ocean-drowning-in-seaweed-scientists-finally-solve-the-mystery/
#ClimateChange

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

🪼 How the Discovery of Single-Celled Marine Organisms Resulted in One of the Most Influential Illustrated Books Ever Published

https://lithub.com/how-the-discovery-of-single-celled-marine-organisms-resulted-in-one-of-the-most-influential-illustrated-books-ever-published/

#plankton #oceans #marine #life #books #literature #arts #photography #publishing

RE: https://biologists.social/@kofanchen/115531843605919177

Yes, it was a lot of fun to record the parts about early brain #evolution and marine #plankton for this BBC series last year in Ischia, Italy!

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 #microscopy. Cell anatomy can be enhanced by staining. An international team has provided this open-source.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.09.027
#science

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

🚨Fully funded PhD opportunity: Physics, biology & ecology of toxic dinoflagellate blooms 🦠.

Supervisory team from Newcastle university (main supervisors), the University of Stirling and Lancaster University.

Join us to investigate how swimming motility and the flexible utilisation of energy sources influence bloom formation, using experiment🔬and modelling ♾️. #microswimmers #plankton #biophysics #biology #ecology #ActiveMatter #PhD

Please repost

Project details: https://iapetus.ac.uk/studentships/physics-biology-and-ecology-of-toxic-plankton-blooms/

NASA’s #PACE (#Plankton, #Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission was launched in February 2024 to study Earth’s oceans and atmosphere and the impact of the tiny things therein.

https://knowledgezone.co.in/trends/browser?topic=NASA-PACE-Mission

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 mid Pacific Ocean and are sorted by the wind, some going to the Americas and others to Asia.
#science #biology

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.

Understanding the origin of modern calcareous #plankton is a challenging exploration. They are small, the #rocks they are in are not that common, and the rock-forming processes tend to dissolve them, so sometimes, to look for them - we hunt for their ghosts👻.

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65116-0

a. Indeterminate coccolith, sample 1 (Cava superiore 1; S206000-03); along with other coccoliths from this sample, to our knowledge this is now the earliest coccolith in the fossil record. b Crucirhabdus primulus, sample 6 (Val Mara D1; S206003-03). c, d Several C. primulus (arrows), sample 6 (Val Mara D1; S206003-03). e C. primulus, sample 6 (Val_Mara_D1ii; S206003-05). f ?Archaeozygodiscus koessenensis, sample 6 (Val_Mara_D1ii; S206003-05). Each sample was surveyed for 4 h. Blue images are inverted to better visualise the original coccoliths. Note that, compared to body fossils, imprinted and inverted images need to be interpreted with additional care, especially regarding features such as clockwise versus anticlockwise imbrication direction. Scale bars, 1 µm.

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, but now we know that some nitrogen is provided by bacteria.
https://scitechdaily.com/we-were-wrong-scientists-find-hidden-phenomenon-that-could-trigger-marine-life-boom/
#Climate #Science

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), modified by Frøydis Strand, NFH, University of Tromsø

#WeekendReading: Ziveri et al. about different calcifying #plankton (coccolithophores, foraminifera, pteropods) move around carbon between different pools in the #ocean and how they might interact with long-term #ClimateChange.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq8520

Unresolved pathways in oceanic CaCO3 cycling: The role of calcifying plankton and shallow water dissolution.
Three main calcifying plankton groups drive CaCO3 production and distinctively influence ocean alkalinity and biogeochemistry. Global CaCO3 fluxes reveal imbalances among production, export, and sediment burial. Biologically driven shallow water dissolution, mediated by predation, aggregation, and microbial respiration, plays a key yet often overlooked role.

#Plankton lebt echt hinter'm Mond…

Valtamerten väri haalistuu – ilmiöllä valtava vaikutus maapallon tulevaisuuteen https://yle.fi/a/74-20189114?origin=rss/Mastodon

#meri #ympäristö #plankton

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. #Diatoms are very diverse and can be indicative of specific conditions in waterbodies, though unlike on TV, we scientists don't have a database of detailed locations to immediately identify a murder site. 🥼
#science
https://simplyforensic.com/how-do-diatoms-aid-forensic-science-in-solving-a-crime/

image/jpeg a wide diversity of shapes of coloured glass shells are seen in a microscopic image. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Plankton sketch card for Topps Chrome 2025 Spongebob Squarepants 25th Anniversary. Now available in stores!

#spongebobsquarepants #plankton #cartoon #Topps #toppschrome #nickelodeon #sketchcard #sketchcards #toppstradingcards #toppscards #tradingcard #tradingcards #fanart #art #artwork #drawing #traditionalart #ink

If anyone on here knows how to ID polychaete larva, I’d love to work with you on getting to the species level on these worms I always find in Boston harbor. I could provide a ton of photos, if I knew what to image for an ID. I know they are spionid but that’s it. #sciart #microscopy #plankton

Polychaete larva cilia currents in timelapse. #sciart #microscopy #plankton

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 "polyphyletic", meaning it is an artificial grouping of multiple taxonomic lines.
#Science #Biology

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

10-Oct-2025
Tiny architects, titanic #climate impact: scientists call for October 10 to become #InternationalCoccolithophoreDay
Microscopic #plankton that regulate Earth’s climate and sustain ocean ecosystems take center stage in a new awareness campaign

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1101119

#science #Coccolithophores #ecology #microbiology #MarineBiology

#Plankton

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