Zoopies!

One of the samples that we collect from all of the lakes are zooplanton (affectionately referred to as zoops). The zoops are collected using a plankton tow (very fine meshed, cone-shaped net suspended at the end of a string that has something on the bottom of the net to weigh it down). As dorky as it sounds, I really like collecting the zooplankton; it's fun to watch them swim around when we put them in the bottle. However, after every sampling trip when we return to the lab, Dan has to kill and preserves them with iodine. He thought it was hilarious the first day after I collected the zoops when he pulled out the iodine bottles and said something to the extent of, "say goodbye to your zoops!" I responded, "wait! You're killing them?" Anyway, I wanted to get some of my own zoopies to keep in the lab that Dan won't kill. So, the other day after dinner, Shannon and I took a canoe out on Toolik Lake to tow for zoops. I got a giant Erlenmeyer and found an aquarium bubbler to make their little habitat in!
Being a geochemist, I don't know very much about zooplankton. However, I learned that the large zoops in the picture above are heterocopes and the small red ones are diapterous (sp? I need to check on that). Apparently there are also daphnia as well, but they are not as abundant.

Sadly, over the past couple days, more and more of my little zoopies ended up on the bottom of the Erlenmeyer, so I decided to set them free and I returned them to the lake this afternoon ...