August 31, 2026
PIE LTER contributed to the “Plankton in Our Midst” art exhibit at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole during the summer of 2025. The art exhibit featured plankton inspired paintings and glass sculptures by artist Krisanne Baker and a companion book & essay by science writer Liz Cunningham. The display included informative science panels about plankton across the diverse ecosystems studied by researchers from MBL’s Ecosystems Center, including PIE LTER and BLE LTER. Check out this video slideshow to see microphotographs of plankton from these ecosystems along with photos and videos of the researchers collecting samples in the field, from New England salt marshes to the deep ocean of the Sargasso Sea. Visit www.mbl.edu to learn more about these research groups!
Above: Art panels by Krisanne Baker at the Plankton in Our Midst exhibit. Photo by JC Weber.
Left: Plankton in our Midst banner and hanging glass sculptures by Krisanne Baker. Right: A Winogradsky column illustrating the diversity and color of anaerobic phototrophs that develop in marine sediments after being placed in columns with some nutrients and food, such as sawdust. Photos by JC Weber.
Long-term research on the Plum Island estuary in Massachusetts has demonstrated that plankton are key to understanding food web shifts due to ocean warming. For example, a species of fiddler crab, which has planktonic larvae, was historically limited to warmer southern waters, but has now moved north to Plum Island and beyond due to warming waters in the Gulf of Maine. Scientists from the Plum Island Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research (PIE LTER) project discovered this range expansion in 2014, and continue to monitor how these new residents are reshaping food webs through competition with native organisms.
Top left: Carried in and out by the tides, plankton connect food webs between estuaries and the coastal ocean, for example, between tidal rivers and creeks of the Great Marsh, MA, and the Gulf of Maine, shown here. Photo by Vinton Valentine. Top right: Collecting water for phytoplankton identification and pigments on a cold October day. Photo by Nat Weston. Bottom: Plankton from the Parker River Estuary, MA.