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Diatom experiments (2022)

Centric diatoms—glass-walled, single-cell phytoplankton found throughtout the oceans—have a beautiful diversity and complexity that invite new mashups of the venerable tradition of origami stars and flowers. Neil has been experimenting. Stay tuned.

Triceratium, a triangular diatom

Diatoms are single-celled, plant-like organisms found throughout the world’s oceans and freshwater. They form dense, short-lived blooms that the rest of the ocean food web depends on, like microscopic rainforests that come and go with the weather. Their exoskeletons are made of silicate (glass) and can take a huge variety of geometric forms. Triceratium diatoms … Read more

Gannet

The northern gannet (Morus bassanus) is the largest seabird in the North Atlantic. They form huge cliff-side colonies and dive from great heights, hitting the water at up to 100 kph in pursuit of small fish. They have shown more resilience to climate change than other UK seabirds, possibly because they dive deeper than most … Read more

Sandeel

Along the North Sea coast of Britain they have been getting smaller as the zooplankton that they eat decline, and the effects are being felt through the entire food web. Not plankton, but fond of plankton! Sandeels, known as sand lances in North America (family Ammodytidae), are slender, silvery fish that are a crucial food … Read more

Calanus finmarchicus

Pershing and Stamieszkin (2019): “We define the North Atlantic biome as the region where the large, lipid-rich copepod Calanus finmarchicus is the dominant mesozooplankton species. … Most of the characteristic North Atlantic species, including cod, herring, and right whales, rely on C. finmarchicus either directly or indirectly.” Designed for “Changing Climate, Changing Stories” at the … Read more

At the Hunterian Museum, 2021–22

As part of a COP26 Science Showcase called “Changing Climate, Changing Stories” at University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum, Neil folded the zooplankton typically eaten by a sandeel off the coast of Scotland at 50x magnification. The small copepods (representing Oithona, Acartia, Centropages spp.) are variants on the model diagrammed by Dasa Severova here. The large … Read more

Copepod v1.0 (2021)

Copepods are tiny crustaceans, 1-5 mm long, that are found everywhere from sunny tropical lagoons to the depths of the Arctic Ocean. They graze on microscopic, plant-like phytoplankton, as well as anything else they can find, including each other. In turn many fish, seabirds, and even whales rely on them as an energy-rich food. Design … Read more