Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

Let's talk #zooplankton nets. Why, on a large ship, do we use a net with very small diameter (0.4 m), but it is long (2 m)? Efficiency! These nets filter better, while not collecting *too much. #Eutrophic systems like #LakeErie clog nets with algae, so less volume is better. We target sizes using different Nitex meshes, most often 63 or 153 μm in the #GreatLakes. To measure volume, we use a flow meter mounted just off-center in the net mouth (know why?). #Science

Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

Not all #autotrophs fix carbon through #photosynthesis. Some #bacteria (lithoautotrophs) use the minerals leached from rock for energy. Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans metabolizes pyrite with oxygen to produce sulfites and sulfuric acid. This causes Acid Mine Drainage #AMD in #streams that drain old coal mines. This *very acidic discharge is oxidized as it contacts air, turning iron bright orange (rust), and contains many #toxic metals.
https://uwaterloo.ca/wat-on-earth/news/acid-mine-drainage-past-presentfuture

Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

One #Hakai video I just posted on was on Diel Vertical Migration of #zooplankton (also motile #phytoplankton). DVM is the largest movement on biomass on the planet, occurring every morning and evening in #lakes and #oceans, as much as 100s of meters (impressive for something a couple mm long). They swim up to feed on algae at night and to avoid visual predators. They also save on energy because deeper cooler water means slower metabolism.
https://youtu.be/OSCZ6athDGI?list=PLD5wTqJwsmGxI9G2B8rM7zV7TIG-mJ_c8

These are very well done. An excellent example of #SciComm.
@hakaimagazine Long Story Shorts!
Most importantly, #Plankton content! 🤩
https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/the-ocean-is-big-and-stuff-is-complicated-were-here-to-help/

Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

Related to my FLIP post, this ship was vital to study of Langmuir Circulation. Wind on water results in alternating spirals forming sequential zones of convergence downwelling and divergence upwelling. Bubbles & buoyant flotsam collect in downwelling zones forming distinctive "windrows". The diffuse upwelling zone aggregates sinking / swimming #zooplankton (depends on swimming speed) targetting food particles in the current. #Oceanography
https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.4319/LO.1980.25.5.0840

@helenczerski I never realised #salmon was carnivorous & #farmedfish needed fishmeal🤦🏽‍♀️. A few adjustment I’ll make:
- look out for more #veggie fish & #seafood (tilapia, mussels…) https://www.seachoice.org/info-centre/aquaculture/wild-fish-in-feed/
- never trust certification bodies, the sea is the last frontier of #corruption, worse than land https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/catching-fish-to-feed-fish-report-details-unsustainable-fishmeal-and-oil-industry/
- if we go straight to the source of #omega3 with micro #algae, we’d better accelerate our #climateaction as #plankton is dying in overheated #oceans https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220623164313.htm

Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

Copepods (latin: oar footed) are the most abundant metazoan (multicellular) organisms on our planet. They live anywhere there is water: oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds, caves, pitcher plants (really), under polar ice, in tropics, even around the hot water near hydrothermal vents. Over 21,000 described species with wildly diverse shapes, avg 1-2mm length in 3 groupings: calanoids, cyclopoids, harpacticoids. Impressive swimmers.
Spongebob's S.J. Plankton is a copepod.

Google photos reminded me it was 16 years ago today that we took my graduate student's need to measure diurnal cycles in a eutrophic #Ohio reservoir to make a lab party of it. #BBQ, campfire, and #guitars played a central role. #Plankton, water quality, and sonde measurements were done every 4 hrs over a 24hr period using my "Daphnia Tracker" research vessel. #Science can be fun too 😀. #OhioUniversity #LakeHope #aquaticecology #limnology

@Schafue
Zuviel #Plankton geschaut? 😀

Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

You've likely heard that ½ the world's #oxygen comes from the ocean. Given #algae are only 1% of the biomass of land plants, how can that be? #Phytoplankton grow rapidly, doubling every day or so, and don't have structural elements like trunks or roots.
*But all living things respire using O2 as well (incl algae), so this % is a very long view since O2 levels have been stable for ~500 M years. #carbon

Paul Falkowski: "Power of Plankton"
https://www.nature.com/articles/483S17a

New #ISEPpapers! Intragenomic diversity of the V9 hypervariable domain in #eukaryotes has little effect on #metabarcoding https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)01368-8 #genomics #protists #algae #plankton #bioinformatics #microbes

Sunday #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

An important yet not well understood component of the plankton are #viruses. They are ubiquitous in all aquatic systems, infecting #zooplankton, #phytoplankton, #microbes & more. They are vital for carbon flux, algal bloom #lysis (cell death), which can lead to toxin release. As you might expect, because of their small size (often >60 nm) they are hard to sample and measure.
A story on the recently documented mirusvirus 🤓😏 here.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/microbiology/bizarre-never-before-seen-viruses-discovered-thriving-throughout-the-worlds-oceans

Always nice to see the crew return safely to the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington from the monthly #Toronto #StCatharines #LakeOntario sampling done for the 2023 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Collaborative Science and Monitoring Initiative #CSMI. 6 stations, 140 km! Long day and a little rough on the lake, but our biologists and #uwaterloo coop students toughed it out. We collected #plankton to study lower #foodwebs and water for chemistry and to measure algae and bacteria growth rates. #GreatLakes

@drmatthewhardy in Fact, #Plankton overdid that with #Oxygen once so hard, it caused #SnowballEarth!

Sunday #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

The story on "greening of the oceans" has been covered recently, but kudos to the Guardian on this article. The collaborative study (link in article) led by the National Oceanography Centre, Southhampton uses #MODIS satellite data from 56% of the ocean surface and a #biogeochemistry model to measure increased green colour (chlorophyll-a in #phytoplankton), esp in the temperate ocean, over the last 20 years (which is short!). #ClimateChange
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/12/worlds-oceans-changing-colour-due-to-climate-breakdown-study-suggests

The #ocean's color is changing as a consequence of #climatechange The team writes that they have detected changes in ocean color over the past two decades that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These #colorshifts, though subtle to the human eye, have occurred over 56 percent of the world's oceans—an expanse that is larger than the total land area on Earth. #ecology #oceans #carbondioxide #plankton #GreenhouseGases #chlorophyll concentrations https://phys.org/news/2023-07-ocean-consequence-climate.html

Time for updated #introduction with the new influx of users from dysfunctional Twitter.

I'm a #GreatLakes Research Scientist working for Fisheries and Oceans #Canada (#DFO) based out of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington. My group is responsible for lower trophic #FoodWebs (microbes, phytoplankton, #zooplankton and diets of forage #fishes). This supports recreational & commercial fisheries and ecosystem health in the lakes.

Sunday #plankton #factoid
#photography #music #theatre

Sunday #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

Several news articles recently about #bioluminescence showing glowing waves crashing against beaches. Usually caused by #dinoflagellates, this #chemoluminescence reaction (luciferin with luciferase) is widespread throughout the water column by many organisms (fish, jellyfish, zooplankton, mollusks, bacteria...). Very common in the deep sea for communication, predation, and escape, and often due to bacterial #symbiosis. Most light is blue or green but can be red.

Bioluminescent plankton: 'It's the northern lights of the ocean'
#Ocean #plankton #northernlights
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-65984861

And for a change away from heavy geopolitics: #Bioluminescent #plankton - 'It's the northern lights of the ocean'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65984861