Spring Bloom Plankton Demonstration

Living in the water beneath the Exploratorium at Pier 15 is an ever-changing community of microscopic plankton. As spring approaches and the days get longer, plant-like phytoplankton are rapidly growing and reproducing.

Join oceanographer Anna McGaraghan, from the Kudela Phytoplankton Ecology Lab at UC Santa Cruz, as she examines phytoplankton from the Bay under a powerful microscope, looking for evidence of this "spring bloom."

McGaraghan will talk about why March is a good month for observing plankton, and what the spring bloom means for the rest of the Bay ecosystem.

Under a microscope, a plankton sample appears as a miniature world of intricate shapes and speeding swimmers. These tiny organisms form the base of the marine food web, and in San Francisco Bay they provide food for baby fish, crustaceans, sea birds, and marine mammals.