Name of plankton: Pleuromamma xiphias

Where sample was found: Giovannoni Cruise, September 8, 2016, 0-200m

Project: BIOS-SCOPE zooplankton excreta experiments

Photo credit: Amy Maas, BIOS

What role do these organisms play in the ecosystem: Pleuromamma xiphias is a large zooplankton that makes a daily migration from the surface waters to more than 450 m deep during the day. Consuming surface organisms at night, it then excretes waste carbon and nitrogen at depth, supplying nutrients to the midwater ecosystem.

Interesting facts: This individual was used in an experiment to determine how much and what kind of carbon this species provides to the bacterial community and to determine how the bacterial community responds. It is getting photographed for species validation just before it is weighed.