Sampling zooplankton

Scientist Julie Hall explains how the MOCNESS (Multiple Opening and Closing Net and Environmental Sampling System) is used to collect zooplankton. Lisa Bryant from Victoria University discusses the zooplankton samples that were caught.

Point of interest for teachers:

• What interesting findings do scientists expect from looking at the bacteria sampled in the multicorer?

Transcript

JULIE HALL Just launching the MOCNESS net, this is a series of multiple nets that we’re able to open and close. We’re going to take it down to 1500 metres and then bring it back slowly through the water column closing nets at different depths so we can actually sample the zoo plankton at different depths in the water column. These are the tiny little animals you can hardly see them with the naked eye but these are the food that the fish live on that we’ve been catching in the other nets.

LISA BRYANT There’s a whole lot of little crustaceans in here and some jellyfish like creatures called salps. What else is in here? A lot of phytoplankton. The crustaceans are amphipods – well mainly amphipods and copepods which sort of graze on phytoplankton and eat all sorts of other things.