Patagonia Plankton
Sep 03, 2026 • 1:33 PM UTC
Chile
140x Magnification
Microorganisms
Enrico Piperno
PhD Candidate at Stanford University building next-generation microscopes.
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On a sailboat transformed into a research laboratory for a week, I had the good fortune of sailing from Puerto Montt to Huinay along the Comau fjords in Southern Chile.
We brought a total of four microscopes on board including the foldscope! We were characterizing the plankton community in the water before the super El Niño arrives this summer - with the highest water temperatures ever predicted. The high water temperatures can promote harmful algal blooms (HABs) which can have significant effects on coastal communities and salmon farms. (Chile’s second largest export is salmon! First is mining, particularly copper).
We found an abundance of chaetoceros chains, in particular chaetoceros debilis which has a beautiful helical twist nature. We also found eucampia, cosnidiscus, and more which can be found here on this ecotaxa library : https://ecotaxa.obs-vlfr.fr/prj/23141. We saw very few dinoflagellates, because they typically bloom in summer and are the individuals responsible for HABs.
In the video I uploaded we found a gelatinous zooplankton which belongs to the apendicularia family.
We brought a total of four microscopes on board including the foldscope! We were characterizing the plankton community in the water before the super El Niño arrives this summer - with the highest water temperatures ever predicted. The high water temperatures can promote harmful algal blooms (HABs) which can have significant effects on coastal communities and salmon farms. (Chile’s second largest export is salmon! First is mining, particularly copper).
We found an abundance of chaetoceros chains, in particular chaetoceros debilis which has a beautiful helical twist nature. We also found eucampia, cosnidiscus, and more which can be found here on this ecotaxa library : https://ecotaxa.obs-vlfr.fr/prj/23141. We saw very few dinoflagellates, because they typically bloom in summer and are the individuals responsible for HABs.
In the video I uploaded we found a gelatinous zooplankton which belongs to the apendicularia family.
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