Little Known Local Catch

Summer Student Fellow Anna Nisi collected zooplankton off the WHOI dock in 2013 to identify and isolate the ones that feed on Synechococcus, a common ocean bacteria. Although it is a primary source of food for many microscopic organisms, little is known about which plankton graze on Synechococcus. Nisi worked in the lab of WHOI biologist Heidi Sosik, where she used a technique called epifluorescence microscopy to identify Synechococcus in the gut of grazers that had eaten it. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)