From CIMA (Centro de Investigaciones Medioambientales del Atlántico, S.L.) (Atlantic Environmental Research Center), we want to show you what we do in and out our offices.

On this page you can find a series of small videos called «Things we do in CIMA», which will help us to explain what we do and how we do it. All this to approach the world of marine biology and oceanography.

– «Things we do in CIMA» #3: Plankton analysis: In this video we want to show you how and why we analyze sea plankton. Plankton is a community of organisms, mainly microscopic, that live in all waters of our planet. Although usually we hear about Zooplankton (animal plankton) and Phytoplankton (plant plankton), there are many other classifications based on size, location or depth.

To capture it, we drag a plankton net along the surface of water. This trawling can also be conducted at different depths from bottom to the surface, using nets of different sizes, depending on the fraction of plankton we want to obtain.

The content is analyzed with the help of magnifying glass or/and microscope, depending on the plankton size.

Why observe the plankton?

It is a good biological indicator of water quality, as these organisms are the first ones that change in response to changes of physical-chemical parameters of water (such as temperature).

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