Meet the Scientists: The Secret World of Plankton

*Please note: Research Director Jason Goldstein's Meet the Scientist program, originally scheduled for June 18th, is postponed until Monday, September 17 at 10am. Full details can be found here.

Meet Research Assistant Michelle Furbeck and learn about the mysterious world of zooplankton! Zoo plankton, or animal plankton, are passively floating or weakly swimming and
usually microscopic animal life in water.

The Wells Reserve has been collecting zooplankton in the Webhannet River Estuary since 2008! The focus of this sampling has been to count and identify the larval fish species caught. In total, we have identified 30 species of larval fish over the last decade of sampling, making this project one of the longest running studies in the Gulf of Maine. Estuaries are important nursery grounds for larval fish, including some commercially and recreationally important species, such as the Atlantic Herring, Flounder and Hake. Having a good understanding of what kinds of larval fish species are present to track changes in long-term abundance of these fish species is very important. It provides an important baseline on population dynamic information of the estuary, should we see any changes in the future.

What has started as a larval fish focused project has grown recently to include larval crabs and other invertebrates as well. Come for the baby fish, stay for the baby crabs and squids!