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Close up of Elizabeth looking into a microscope

Indentifiying plankton - a rollercoaster of knowledge

Over time, I came to realise that there can actually be a lot of things that looked like the things I was seeing, and that I needed to take a step back and really deep-dive into some of these organisms to tease out the distinguishing features (and I’m still doing that today). It was easy to feel disheartened when I realised how much I didn’t know, but the love of these little organisms and the addiction of finding new things literally every time I looked kept me moving forward.

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A teal background with a yellow UK on it and the words 'UK Plankton Snapshot' diagonally printed across it in pink. There are rough cutout photos of pelagic organisms all around

UK Plankton Snapshot

We asked plankton scientists and citizen scientists "What's interesting, unusual, or abundant in you samples at the moment?" and here's what they said!

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A black background with The Plankton Project logo and the words "The Plankton Project citizen science scheme, Sample analysis (presence/absence) Level 1 (lifeforms)"

Sample analysis - lifeform presence/absence

How to analysis your plankton sample - video tutorial

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A black background with The Plankton Project logo and the words "The Plankton Project citizen science scheme, Sampling for plankton"

Plankton sampling tutorial

How to take your plankton sample - video tutorial

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A black background with The Plankton Project logo and the words "The Plankton Project citizen science scheme, Preparing your sampling kit"

Preparing your sampling kit

What equipment do you need to do your plankton survey? This video goes through the details.

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A screen shot of the first slide of the presentation, showing what will be discussed

An introduction to The Plankton Project citizen science scheme - Zoom recording

A recording of the Zoom meeting on 6 August 2026, introducing The Plankton Project citizen science scheme

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A leaflet showing information about the intotry zoom meeting fo the citizen science project

Plankton Citizen Science is GO!

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Elizabeth is standing on a pier holding up a plankton net

Plankton Nets

A video about where to start with plankton nets.

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A micrograph of an Acantharia cell

Welcome to planet Acantharia!

Acantharia are most recognisable by their array of spicules, which are composed mainly of strontium sulphate (aka celestite) and barium, extending from a single cell (Larnik & Westheide,2011). Interestingly, Acantharia are the only known marine organisms capable of biomineralising strontium sulphate.

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