Cue Plankton: Ocean Timekeepers
Cue Plankton: Ocean Timekeepers is a lesson developed for high school students to explore a particular species of zooplankton, a copepod, known as Pleuromamma xiphias. The lesson looks at the process of diel vertical migration (DVM) and an organism’s ability to demonstrate predictable, daily cycles of fluctuation, known as circadian rhythms. The purpose of the lesson is to understand the structure of the water column at one of BIOS’s spatial stations, Hydrostation ‘S’, in the Sargasso Sea. The lesson explores circadian rhythms and timing of fecal pellet production by P. xiphas. Students will utilize the freeware ‘Image J’ to analyze photographs taken from a research cruise at BIOS in March 2019.
Check out the lesson plan, worksheet, CTD Data, and fecal pellet stack data. Educational resources were supported by NSF grant #1829318.
High Dive into the Data
Access Data on BCO-DMO
Brief Description….
- How to
- Access the
- Datasets
- on BCO-DMO
How were the data collected?
- Ship: R/V Atlantic Explorer
- Location: Hydrostation S
- Lat/Lon: 55oN, 75oW
- Oceanographic Tool: MOCNESS Trawl
Description of data collection method goes here. Not super detailed but educating folks on the types of sampling that happens on a ship at a very high level.
Multimedia Resources
Podcast
The Great Carbon Elevator
Video: Dr Maas
In this StoriesXFuture video, Dr. Amy Maas explains how innovation and technology help ocean scientists study plankton, the tiny guys who matter a lot. Check out the video on YouTube!
MOCNESS SAMPLE
Samples collected during a MOCNESS trawl are poured through a sieve.
Photo Gallery
