Prins Ursula

Lots of notes pondering this but I have definitely seen educational materials calling them "microscopic," and sometimes "microscopic plankton," and I think those sources are misunderstanding what it means that krill are, in fact, a type of plankton.

The thing is, "plankton" does not refer to the size. At all. "Plankton" refers to any living thing that is naturally carried by ocean currents more than it actively chooses where to go.

This deadly man o war with 10 meter tentacles is plankton. It doesn't swim at all and just floats idly.

This giant colonial pyrosome is plankton, such a weak swimmer that it can "steer" a little bit it can't fight against a current.

Being capable of bursts of speed but usually just drifting the MOLA MOLA is a plankton. Sometimes the term "megaplankton" is tossed around for clarification.

Obviously, large plankton are outnumbered by microscopic plankton trillions to one and the microscopic plankton are what feeds the sponges and corals and mussels and baby fish (who are also plankton) as the basis of the whole food web, so when plankton is being discussed, biologists are just statistically more likely to be talking about the tiniest kind is all.

Sometimes they specify "microscopic plankton" but the average person just thinks this is to clarify what they assumed was the basic definition of plankton. I've seen the very phrase laughed at for being "redundant!"

Most "Seaweeds" including kelp are actually huge giant multi celled algae, so also not related at all to plants! As different from plants as we are from fungus!

Literally this here is a forest of the planet's largest protists!!

But yes a great deal of microscopic plankton consists of animals, and it's worth noting a great deal of these are the larvae of larger sizes animals. All kinds of fish and shrimp and things start out microscopic!

hey, I heard y’all like evil biology facts like knowledge about horse blood types.

well! today I was researching alternative biochemistries extraterrestrial life could use and. man. I think Earth life is fucked up enough for me thanks

biological dark matter. WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY BLOOD HAS DNA IN IT FROM NO KNOWN SOURCE. YOU CAN’T JUST SAY THAT COME BACK HERE

One specific cave that has been sealed for 5.5 million years and has developed an ecosystem completely dependent on chemosynthetic bacteria.

Was anybody going to tell me that bacteria have decided iron is yummy and are eating the Titanic, or was I supposed to just read that myself

Terrible Berry (yes, that’s what the genus name means). This whole thing is so fucked up. These scientists were testing whether radiation could be used to kill pathogens in food, so they dosed a tin of meat with enough radiation to kill any known living organism (as one does) but guess what, it still fucking spoiled because of THIS BASTARD FUCKER.

(seriously, why is it like this? WHY has a bacterium evolved to chill in radioactive waste like it’s a soothing Jacuzzi tub? What does it know that we don’t know?)

(ANSWERS. I WANT ANSWERS, YOU CHERNOBYL ASS BITCH.)

Cursed worm, which has no mouth or digestive system and depends entirely on five (5) different species of bacteria, which consume hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen monoxide, and carbon monoxide, for food. How do you, a worm, even...figure out how to do...all that?

Bone worms. At least they like their bones already dead. I still could have gone without knowing this was a thing.

“Oh, parasitic plant, that sounds c—WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING”

It's okay if it takes a little longer than you thought.

RATING: RELIABLE

BP did hire PR firm Ogilvy & Mather in 2004, and coined the term 'carbon footprint' as well as creating the 'carbon footprint calculator'. This gave the impression that climate change was primarily the fault of the individual consumers.

From a New York Times opinion piece on carbon footprint (via the Wayback Machine): 'In 2004, BP hired the public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather to improve its image, in part by conveying the message that consumers of oil and natural gas bear the responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions, not the producers of the oil and gas they use. The result was BP’s ingenious carbon footprint calculator, which allows individuals to calculate the carbon emissions that result from their activities.'

From a BBC Future article on 'how companies blame you for climate change': 'Similar criticisms have been levelled at terms like "carbon footprints" – which was first coined in a 2005 TV advert from BP. The advert appears to show members of the public being stopped in the street and asked what is "their carbon footprint".'

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