More Plankton

I had the opportunity to return to the Marine Station, today, to look at plankton again.  

They even left me petri dishes of plankton with my name on them in the lab refrigerator! 

I spent some time photographing them with my camera and phone, and I spent time viewing and photographing them with the fancy microscope.

So, what is plankton, anyway? If you want an in-depth article on plankton, you can find one at this link. Basically, plankton are organisms that drift in a body of water, unable to swim against currents. They are a food staple for many marine organisms. There are saltwater plankton and there are freshwater plankton.

I personally think that plankton just want to have fun. They are always bopping one another and bouncing off of each other. Their behaviour can appear to be pretty aggressive at times, but the little ones just roll with it--literally! It's so fun to watch them. It is a bit reminiscent of a bunch of balloons nudging and bumping. The larger ones just plow into the smaller ones, sending them tumbling head over heel.

I made two videos. The first is the free-for-all. It is similar to my previous plankton video. These clips are not adjusted for speed. This is how the plankton behave in the petri dish. The first video is taken with my iPhone, which is quite remarkable. Those cameras have certainly come a long way!

Here is the link to "Rough and Tumble: Plankton Edition"

The second video was taken with the Leica microscope. Another artist at the station brought me this sample so we could look at it together. We think it's a tiny jelly. But we don't know for sure. It sure was fascinating to watch!

Here is the link to "Plankton Jelly".

Enjoy!