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Petrie dishes containing copepods in a large rack.

Petrie dishes containing copepods in a large rack.
Petrie dishes containing copepods in a large rack.
Petrie dishes containing copepods in a large rack.
Petrie dishes containing copepods in a large rack.
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348318
Linder, Christopher L.
Petrie dishes containing copepods in a large rack.
Still Image
05/04/2009
graphics/PD5_dailys/cl_20090504195447.jpg
The bug hotel-it's really more of a bug maternity ward-sits in a dark corner of a cold room close to the main lab. The female copepods go in for 24 hours, then their eggs are counted. "At a couple of stations this year, none of them have laid eggs," Ashjian says. For example, when we left the algae bloom last week to go back to the ice for a night, the females from there didn't lay any eggs. Copepods in icy regions might wait to lay eggs until the ice clears and there's more food in the water. Some species eat their eggs when they're in the hotel-those females are put up on little sieves so their eggs fall through to where they can't reach them.
Image of The Day caption:
Rows of petri dishes could mean bacteria being cultured. Instead, these are shipboard accommodations for copepods, little ocean animals related to shrimp but just a fraction of an inch long. WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian led a 2009 research expedition to the Bering Sea to study how climate change is affecting the productive Arctic ecosystem. Copepods, vital links in the ocean food chain, were caught, and females were held in dishes for a day. Then the eggs laid were counted, to learn more about climate, sea ice and their effects on copepod populations.
Photo by Chris Linder
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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