Photo of the Week

We are excited to bring back our Photo of the Week section so stay tuned for new content coming soon! In the meantime, take a look at these fantastic pictures from our teachers.

Don’t Forget the Phytoplankton!

May 28, 2019
A scientist aboard R/V Tiglax prepares filters to separate large and small phytoplankton from seawater samples.

Photo: Katie Gavenus

The plankton living in this water is processed in a multitude of ways. First, in the lab on the ship, some of the water is passed through two filters to catch phytoplankton of differing sizes. These filters are chemically extracted for 24 hours before being analyzed using a fluorometer, which measures the fluorescence of the pigment Chlorophyll-a. This provides a quantitative measurement of Chlorophyll-a biomass. It also allows researchers to determine whether the phytoplankton community at a given time and place is dominated by ‘large’ phytoplankton or ‘small’ phytoplankton.
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8 photos for sample · Clear

NOAA Fisheries is celebrating #CoralsWeek – Take a closer look!December 2, 2019Don’t Forget the Phytoplankton!May 28, 2019NOAA Celebrates Corals Week 2017December 4, 2017Hard to tell from here, but some of the plankton in this jar are really tiny larval fish– “ichthyoplankton.”February 1, 2016Jingle Bell Rockfishes?December 21, 2015“Adult puffer fish on the left from a groundfish trawl and a baby puffer from a plankton tow on the right.”December 23, 2013“Following each seafloor dredge tow, the science and engineering teams work to shuck the largest of the scallops for closer analysis.”July 8, 2013“Following each seafloor dredge tow, the science and engineering teams work to shuck the largest of the scallops for closer analysis.”July 8, 2013