October 22nd, 2013 § § permalink
On his epic journey across the Pacific aboard a traditional balsa raft, Thor Heyerdahl and his team dined on buckets of plankton (as well as military rations, coconuts and countless species of fish, crustacean, etc.). Their descriptions of drawing up the plankton tows and the experience of actually slurping the stuff down, are some of my favorite passages from the opus work The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas. Given the changes since these days, in terms of the encroachment of the plastisphere into the water column…I wonder if such dining will still be possible on my excursion?
September 18th, 2013 § § permalink
Plankton is a lot like high school. Individuals find themselves tossed into a motley group of assorted creatures headed in the same direction. (Stay with me here.) They might not have anything much in common – they might be different sizes, eat different things, and perform vastly different roles in the ecosystem. Sometimes they are diverse; sometimes they are homogeneous (like during an algal bloom). Yet there they are, bound together in the Plankton Class of 2013.
Experts talk about this slippery set using terms such as “guild”, “ecological group” and “functional type”. These groupings are not necessarily related to taxonomic or physiological closeness, but might throw a lasso around a particular activity the plankton are involved in, such as the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the ocean.
Just like your friends from high school, individual plankton might veer off to become wildly different in their adult forms. They might cycle for generations in local waters while others are drawn off into distant carbon sinks. If only they had some form of Facebook to keep in touch…
August 30th, 2013 § § permalink
Last winter, Fabio and I visited the aquarium in Genoa, Italy. I remember seeing more kids huddled around a SpongeBob SquarePants exhibit than this rad live jelly show. Nonetheless, I miss Italy! I also miss his mother’s cooking. REALTALK.
