zooplankton
The Blob: The movie monster attacking fish
The Pacific marine heatwave of 2013-2016, called the Blob, caused ocean temperatures in Alaska to spike, harming wildlife from whales to salmon. A new study shows that even if the animals could take the heat, they may have been starving. Kristin HuizengaI am a PhD student in Biological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island […]
Where are the Zooplankton?
Ever wonder how researchers combine observations of organisms in the water to what we can see from satellites? Read on for a summary of newly published research by Dr. Jean-Hoel and co-authors. Melanie FeenI am a first year graduate student at the Graduate School of Oceanography at University of Rhode Island. I use robots and […]
Seeing Swarms from Space, Zooplankton in Action
Ever wonder how living creatures in the ocean can be seen all the way from space? A recent study by Basedow and co-researchers found that they could detect red colored zooplankton in images collected by satellites. Melanie FeenI am a first year graduate student at the Graduate School of Oceanography at University of Rhode Island. […]
Lightheaded: Why some plankton may soon be gasping for breath
The amount of oxygen in the ocean is expected to decrease every decade due to climate change. In the Oxygen Minimum Zone, the area of the ocean with the least oxygen, what does this mean for the future of zooplankton? Kristin HuizengaI am a PhD student in Biological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island […]
I like to move it, move it: Krill boogie down all year
Krill, the tiny organisms that feed the Southern Ocean, have long been thought to be pretty mellow in the winter. As it turns out, it is quite the party down there year around! Eric OrensteinEric is a PhD student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His research in the Jaffe Laboratory for Underwater Imaging focuses […]
Wandering copepods can’t find their way home in acidic oceans
Journal source: Smith, J. N., C. Richter, K. Fabricius, and A. Cornils. 2017. Pontellid copepods affected by ocean acidification: A field study at natural CO2 seeps. PLoS ONE 12 doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175663. Introduction Ocean acidification (OA for short) is a topic that seems to be receiving increased attention, and if you’ve scrolled through some recent Oceanbites posts, […]
Connecting production to glacial meltwater
As sea-ice disappears, many scientists predict that primary production will increase in high latitude regions. A Danish group adds some nuance to this prediction based on a recent study off the coast of Greenland. Eric OrensteinEric is a PhD student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His research in the Jaffe Laboratory for Underwater Imaging […]
Mucus flux and other amazing discoveries with underwater cameras
Scientists have been taking pictures underwater since the turn of the 19th century. But only recently have researchers and engineers started designing special systems to answer some of the most vexing questions in oceanography. Just last week, a group from MBARI published their findings from one such instrument about zooplankton mucus. Eric OrensteinEric is a […]
Penguins can rock their bodies without eating high trophic level prey
Prey of a higher trophic level does not necessarily translate to a higher body mass in rockhopper penguins. Read more to find out why! Megan ChenI graduated with a Masters of Coastal & Marine Management from the University of Akureyri in Iceland, and am currently working at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History […]
Herds of sea monkeys help scientists understand the role of diel vertical migration in ocean mixing
Article: Monica M. Wilhelmus and John O. Dabiri. Observations of large-scale fluid transport by laser-guided plankton aggregations. Physics of Fluids, September 30, 2014 DOI: 10.1063/1.4895655 Background Every day, as the sun sets, hundreds and thousands of individual zooplankton begin to swim up from deep waters to the surface. This daily migration is known as diel vertical migration and […]
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