Microworlds: Making Babies

There are plenty of fish in the sea, and there are even more plankton. But in a vast ocean, it’s tough for microscopic plankton to find a mate. How do plankton do it?

Hey, teachers! Here’s a cheat sheet of what’s included in this episode of Microworlds:
• Plankton, phytoplankton, zooplankton
• Sexual and asexual reproduction; cloning; hermaphrodism; timing; phytoplankton blooms
• Parasitism
• Parental care
• Physical and behavioral adaptations to the environment
• Diatoms, sea squirts (larvacean), bopyrid isopods, copepods, mud shrimps, bristle worms (polychaetes)

We post our plankton finds on iNaturalist, an online community science platform for discovering, sharing, and learning about nature observations. Here are some of the organisms featured in this episode:

This episode is part of our series Microworlds, where we shrink down and discover the wonderful lives of the tiny, the miniature, the microworlds.

Produced by Josh Silberg and Meigan Henry
Written by Josh Silberg
Edited by Kristina Blanchflower
Videography by Bennett Whitnell and Grant Callegari
Voice-over by Kristina Blanchflower
Microscopy/Scientific team: Alana Closs, Noriko Okamoto, Tyrel Froese, Faye Manning, and Kyle Hall
Additional footage by Tavish Campbell and Storyblocks

[shelleywalker]

Thank you so much for making the videos. I love watching them and sharing them with my students!

[abomhalib]

إن الله الذي خلق كل عذا يستخق العبادة والتقرب إليه
حكيم عليم خلق المخلوقات بتسلسل رهيب ذكي مبدع مفصل واعطاها الطاقة لتعيش