Ocean census identifies tiny creatures with a massive role
Steve Connor
Independent
_________
They are the smallest animals in the sea and they form a vital link in the web of marine life but scientists know next to nothing about the zooplankton of the world's oceans.
A deep-sea trawl by marine scientists has come up with hundreds of species of zooplankton - from tiny shrimp-like creatures and swimming worms to flying snails and pulsing jellyfish.
A scientific expedition to the Sargasso Sea of the North Atlantic has catalogued about 500 species of zooplankton living at depths of between half a mile and 3 miles below the surface.
The 20-day cruise was designed to capture some of the most important, but overlooked, creatures of the oceans that play a vital role in both the marine food chain and the carbon cycle. "We're trying to really make a census of what actually lives in the ocean," said Dr Peter Wiebe, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
May 05, 2006
Steve Connor
Independent
_________
They are the smallest animals in the sea and they form a vital link in the web of marine life but scientists know next to nothing about the zooplankton of the world's oceans.
A deep-sea trawl by marine scientists has come up with hundreds of species of zooplankton - from tiny shrimp-like creatures and swimming worms to flying snails and pulsing jellyfish.
A scientific expedition to the Sargasso Sea of the North Atlantic has catalogued about 500 species of zooplankton living at depths of between half a mile and 3 miles below the surface.
The 20-day cruise was designed to capture some of the most important, but overlooked, creatures of the oceans that play a vital role in both the marine food chain and the carbon cycle. "We're trying to really make a census of what actually lives in the ocean," said Dr Peter Wiebe, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
May 05, 2006
