Per tradition, students in professor Kevin B. Johnson‘s Marine and Estuarine Zooplankton course celebrated halloween in a very “Florida Tech” way.
For the 20th year, Johnson’s students dressed as various zooplankton—marine and freshwater animal drifters that are vitally important to global issues, like fisheries, climate and the economy.
Learn a little more about the little creatures, and check out the creative costumes students put together this year.
Garrett Crotty, conservation technology M.S. student, as giant mesopelagic jellyfish Stygiomedusa gigantea, including sidekick commensal fish Thalassobathia pelagica
Julia Martinus, oceanography student, as the ctenophore (comb jelly) Mnemiopsis leidyi. Many comb jellies are bioluminescent, but the light traveling along their comb rows is a prismatic effect, rather than a biochemical reaction.
Rachael Stark, oceanography M.S. student, as a four-arm-stage echinopluteus larva (sea urchin larva)—the perfect zooplankton costume for social distancing!
Sean Crowley, oceanography Ph.D. student, as the amphipod Phronima sp. Phronima kills salps, eats their interior and then inhabits the salp’s “tunic” or husk. This macabre zooplankter is a great Halloween choice!
Peyton Schultz, environmental and informal science education M.S. student, as the Portuguese man o’ war, Physalia physalis. P. physalis is a colonial organism. One organism in the colony forms the float, a gas-filled pneumatophore that supports the rest of the colony.
Graduate student Nisa Pennyfeather, environmental and informal science education M.S. student, in another interpretation of the Portuguese man o’ war, Physalia physalis. P. physalis lives at the surface of the ocean, where UV light causes damage and stress. The bluish-purple coloration, present in many surface-dwelling plankton, is a natural UV sunscreen.
Cierra Braga, oceanography Ph.D. student, as the pelagic nudibranch sea slug Glaucus atlanticus. This nudibranch is a predator on certain planktonic gelatinous zooplankton, such as P. physalia.
Morgan Gilligan, oceanography M.S. student, as the pteropod Clione sp. Pteropods are pelagic snails that have completely or nearly lost their shells to be very lightweight for staying aloft in the plankton.
Kailey Richard, oceanography Ph.D. student, as the bubble-raft snail Janthina janthina, another predator on surface jellyfish. The purple coloration protects against UV damage.
