Corinne Ross

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      <img alt="DSC_0397" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15968 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15968" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462459732","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.03125","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0397" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15967/DSC_0397.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      I found this crab floating in some kelp along the docks near where I live. These crabs are common predators at docks, as well as the rocky intertidal. Like any good biologists, I love me some dissections, and after seeing these guys scuttle around so often, it was a treat to get a closer look at one.
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      <img alt="DSC_0420" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15969 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15969" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462465165","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"250","shutter_speed":"0.03125","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0420" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15967/DSC_0420.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      After removing its carapace, I was immediately interested in looking at the gills, or branchiae. I considered also taking a closer look at the eyes, but couldn’t figure out a good way to remove them from the carapace without damaging them. If anyone has a suggestion for trying that, let me know in the comments.
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      <img alt="DSC_0435" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15970 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15970" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462465933","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0435" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15967/DSC_0435.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      Here’s a couple of views through the Foldscope where the filaments or branches extend from the end of the branchial axis.
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      <img alt="DSC_0437" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15971 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15971" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462465955","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.03125","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0437" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15967/DSC_0437.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      Here’s the end of the filaments. It is always striking to see something that looks so delicate in a slide.
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      <img alt="DSC_0431" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-15972 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="15972" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462465871","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.008","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0431" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_15967/DSC_0431.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      For those who want to try this themselves, getting a closer look at the gills of this crab was pretty easy. The gills were easy to lay in place, and it took no extra scalpels or tools.
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Try not to be crabby, dissections can be quite interesting

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      <img alt="DSC_0392" class="alignnone wp-image-16038 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16038" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462457528","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.0004","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="DSC_0392" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16017/DSC_0392.jpg" width="169"/>
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     <p>
      The docks near my house are a lovely place to explore marine life of all sizes. Sea lion and Brandt’s cormorants were hanging out on the wharf as I towed a plankton net off the boat dock. I was curious to see what microscopic life I could find floating in the water right off the boat launch.
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      <img alt="DSC_0450" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16018 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16018" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462467597","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.008","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0450" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16017/DSC_0450.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      It came as no surprise that I found a copepod swimming around in the collecting jar. Due to it’s shorted antennae and proximity to shore, I think it may have been a
      <em>
       Harpacticoid spp
      </em>
      . (Quick, copepod experts, let me know in the comment section!) It was so interesting to watch her swim around. She seemed to move in jumping spurts. This is because to such a small organism, the water is actually very viscous. Although water flows smoothly around something as large as a human, smaller animals move as though they are in a large ball pit.
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      <img alt="DSC_0448" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16020 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16020" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462467554","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"64","shutter_speed":"0.008","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0448" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16017/DSC_0448.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      Copepods have four main life stages: egg, nauplius, copepodite, and adult. The nauplier and copepodite morphs have multiple stages in them as well. Over the course of a copepod’s life, they go through so many transformations, each able to interact with the marine environment in different ways. Their feeding rate actually changes per pound with each life stage. It is not until a copepod reaches adulthood that they have a gender.
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     <p>
      Looking at this copepod in particular, I was able to see egg sacks on her posterior end. In this one slide, I was able to see both the end point and the very beginning of a copepod’s life cycle.
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      <img alt="DSC_0456" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16021 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16021" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462468015","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.03125","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0456" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16017/DSC_0456.jpg" width="300"/>
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     <p>
      If this copepod is actually
      <em>
       Harpacticoid spp.,
      </em>
      then it lives in both the ocean environment as well as in the sediment near the coast. Copepods are an important food source to many marine animals, including whales.
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Copepod Life Cycle- Beginning and End

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 <img alt="DSC_0382" class="alignnone wp-image-16192 size-medium gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16192" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462456868","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"","orientation":"6"}' data-image-title="DSC_0382" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16177/DSC_0382.jpg" width="169"/>
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<p>
 Exploring the nearby docks never gets old. Of course, when I look though water samples and plankton net tows, I expect to find marine organisms. I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was to find a flying insect caught in a plankton net a few weeks back.
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 <img alt="DSC_0474" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16186 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16186" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462468585","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"100","shutter_speed":"0.03125","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0474" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16177/DSC_0474.jpg" width="300"/>
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<p>
 Now, I’m no entomologist, so I don’t know what exactly I found, other than and insect with one pair of wings. Still it’s pretty to look at (check out it’s wings!), and it also brings up an important point about nutrient cycling in the coastal areas.
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 <img alt="DSC_0475" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16189 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16189" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462468601","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"80","shutter_speed":"0.03125","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0475" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16177/DSC_0475.jpg" width="300"/>
 <img alt="DSC_0468" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16188 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16188" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462468452","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"64","shutter_speed":"0.015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0468" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16177/DSC_0468.jpg" width="300"/>
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<p>
 Coastal zones are an important vector for nutrients to cycle between the land and the sea. A lot of nutrients actually come from the sea onto land. Nutrient cycling is usually thought of in terms of carbon and nitrogen exchanges. Pelagic birds eat fish from the ocean, then roost on land. Their guano becomes a point of nutrient transfer. Anadromous fish such as salmon swim into freshwater areas and are eaten by bears. And, as we see here, insects will fall into the ocean, bringing terrestrial nutrients into the marine environment.
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 <img alt="DSC_0480" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-16191 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="16191" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"D6708","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1462468857","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.9","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.05","title":"","orientation":"1"}' data-image-title="DSC_0480" data-recalc-dims="1" height="169" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_16177/DSC_0480.jpg" width="300"/>
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Corinne Ross

Earth

Posts

Try not to be crabby, dissections can be quite interesting

Copepod Life Cycle- Beginning and End

Nutrient cycling, and a little winged insect

Locations

Statistics

Type of Sample

Foldscope Lens Magnification