@tardibabe: Crazy to think they’re invisible to the naked eye 🥹 These fluffy colonies are called Synura and each of them measure between 0.03 and 0.1 mm, depending on the species and the number of individuals in a single colony. Synura tend to bloom when water is cold and are often encountered during spring or autumn in freshwater ponds and lakes. Although they can also be found during summer! I found them last Wednesday when it was around 2°C outside. Synura are colonial flagellates that possess golden-colored plastids used for photosynthesis. They bear some of the same pigments that are found in diatoms; chlorophyll c and fucoxanthin! Every little yellow sphere that compose the bigger yellow colony are single cell bearing two flagella used for locomotion. Synura colonies can be found in plankton of freshwater habitats like ponds, lakes and slowly flowing rivers. As I mentioned in the beginning, Synura are known to form blooms and release some chemical compounds that are associated with odors of cucumber and fish 🐠 sounds like a snack to me 👀 Well lots of small invertebrates adore to snack on them! They get eaten by daphnia, ostracods, flatworms, rotifers, ciliates and other little animals. Video taken with my iPhone mounted on a BA310E Motic microscope with an @ilabcam ultra adapter 🔬 Reference: Siver, P. A. (2015). Synurophyte algae. In Freshwater Algae of North America (pp. 607-651). Academic Press. #fyp #microscope #science #soothing #relax

Chloé Savard

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Region: CA

Sunday 27 November 2022 20:36:49 GMT