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Spring Catch

Under the microscope are two female copepods of different species, caught on a spring 2014 cruise in the Chukchi Sea. The cruise, aboard the USCG icebreaker Healy, aimed to study phytoplankton blooms happening under the sea ice in low light levels. WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian studied the copepods, small crustaceans that eat the phytoplankton and are an important link in the Arctic food chain. The smaller one, Pseudocalanus, is 2mm (0.08 inches) long, The larger, Calanus glacialus, at nearly 1/4-inch, carries eggs—the rosy pink coloration along her ‘belly.'(Photo by Carin Ashjian, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)