Photos and musings from my samples for NOAA’s phytoplankton monitoring network and unending fascination with primary producers.
Here you see a #beautiful coiling #colony of #Asterionellopsis, a #marine #diatom. The individual cells joined by valve faces into star-shaped to form spiraling connections. Two chloroplasts per cell. Diatoms are so lovely to me; their exoskeletons made of silica (glass) with the chloroplast (the green), taking in light from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air and turning it into the air we breathe and sugar. This diatom and others in its phylum can be found all over the surface of the ocean and contribute up to 70% of our earth’s oxygen while feeding marine life. Sometimes when I’m basking in the glow of the sun, I close my eyes and think of how amazing it is that a primary producer like plants and diatoms can take that energy with some carbon dioxide and make mega-complex sugars and O2. Earthlings are wondrous. Can anyone spot the two other types of diatoms in this photo??by me 400x Salt Water Sample taken from Davis Harbor in Biscayne Bay.
Asterionellopsis – Marine Diatom
Bdelloid Rotifers
Look at these weirdos, they are bdelloid #rotifers. The Bdelloidea are #vortex feeders, creating currents of water that guide food into its mouth and for moving. They hang out in the soil and will dry up and go dormant when conditions are dry. They have little toes on the other side that they use to cling. Can you see the corona “crown” with the tiny #cilia swirling the water around? Cooler than this crown is how rotifers reproduced, they have been reproducing without sex for millions of years. Despite being #asexual in reproduction, they have managed to have a ton of genetic diversity. About 8% of rotifers DNA comes for foreign #organisms, even fungi, and bacteria. If you want to learn more about how you can get genes from another species, look up horizontal gene transfer. It’s pretty cool. 100x freshwater caught on my cheap OMAX sampled from backyard.
Navicula
Look what I found in Miami’s Biscayne Bay, they’re not hard to find. Here we have a #diatom of the genus #Navicula, this #microscopic #ocean animal with skin made out of glass and others like it are responsible for about 25% of all the air on Earth. As a primary producer, it uses #photosynthesis, to convert sunlight and CO2 into sugars they use for nourishment, emitting oxygen as a waste product. Imagine that, drinking light and sucking up CO2 to make the air we breathe and sugar we eat. The green-brown parts are the #chloroplasts which is where this process takes place. Together with the rest of #marine Phytoplankton, they make up more than half the air. I just love have beautiful these beautiful glass creatures look.