Limacina, Termora, Bosmina – so much life in a little drop of water! Using their microscope, Dr. Silke Lischka, Dana Michaelis and Carsten Spisla discover a variety of plankton species that can hardly be seen with the naked eye.
Throughout the experiment, marine biologists and taxonomists identify and count the various organisms from subsamples collected from the mesocosms in order to document the development of the plankton community. This helps them to find out which species suffer and which ones benefit from ocean acidification.
Changes in the world of tiny creatures have knock-on effects throughout the food web so that even larger organisms may be affected.
Photo: Solvin Zankl