Plankton Observations:)

Plankton!!

This is a picture, taken under the microscope by Mrs. Richardson, of a cluster of algae. Algae is a great sorces of food, and living in the algae are nano phytoplankton. You can't really see them becuase the microscope isn't zoomed in far enough but they are there. Phytoplankton are free floating plants and they are the base of the foodchain in the ocean. 

This is a great picture, taken by Mrs. Richardson, of the skeletons of star shaped Forams. They are located on the Star Beach in Japan. When they die, their skeletons wash up on this beach and that is their "sand". They don't have sand, instead they have the skeletons of Froams.

This is a really cool macro picture of a zooplankton worm. If you look closely you are able to see its cells and his/her's antennas. The worm was actually moving and it was unique to see how it moves, and the best thing was that you could see like its insides moving. Like food being moved throughout its body; it was really neat to see. (This picture was also taken by Mrs. Richardson)

This is a darker picture but if you look close enough you are able to see Diatoms. The Diatoms are the lines with the white in the middle, and they are actually boxes. They come together to float slower to the bottom(lake, pond, ocean, etc). It's really neat to be able to see all of the organisms under the microscope and look at their cells and how they form and move. Thanks Mrs. Richardson for the great pictures!!