Tiny sea creature Porpita porpita may live adrift at sea for years longer than previously thought https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tiny-sea-creature-porpita-adrift.html https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-49897-y

"Blue button is a collection of tiny polyps attached to a disk made of chitin with chambers of air that acts as a float... They grow to about 4–5 cm in diameter and drift wherever the current takes them... A 4-mm-radius colony was about 3 months old, a 12-mm one about 1 year old, while a 23-mm colony was an unexpected average of 5 years old"

#neuston

L’ecosistema misterioso creato dall’accumulo di oggetti abbandonati oltre il confine dei continenti
https://www.jacoporanieri.com/blog/?p=43481

#oceano #pacifico #spazzatura #rifiuti #problemi #chiazza #ambiente #ecologia #invertebrati #neuston #organismi #riproduzione #proliferazione #plastica #materiali #futuro #inquinamento #pianeta #salvezza #biologia #molluschi #acqua #continenti

Neuston, we have a problem: why do we know so little about the creatures floating on the #ocean surface? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/30/neuston-sea-creatures-ocean-surface-science-study

"Known collectively as the #neuston, these creatures are not tied to any one place. Instead, they move with the wind and the water. Sometimes they gather into huge drifts, living islands of #velella and #bluebottles... At other times they clump together around drifting debris or spread out sparsely over hundreds or even thousands of square kilometres."

Meet the #Neuston, the Diverse Organisms Living at the #Ocean’s Surface https://www.the-scientist.com/slideshow-meet-the-neuston-the-diverse-organisms-living-at-the-ocean-s-surface-70851

The Constellation of #Creatures Inhabiting the Ocean Surface https://www.the-scientist.com/the-constellation-of-creatures-inhabiting-the-ocean-surface-70844

"The ocean’s surface harbors an #ecosystem of colorful, understudied life, ranging from #protists and #cnidarians to #insects."

Started From the Bottom https://oceanbites.org/started-from-the-bottom/

Animal #evolution at the #ocean’s water-air interface https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)01526-9

"#neuston did indeed evolve from ancestors that were substrate-attached but not necessarily to the #seafloor. This means that the neustonic organisms may be derived from #benthic organisms and other organisms that aren’t benthic but still attach to a substrates in the #pelagic zone."

Limpida è la zattera della lumaca sospesa tra cielo e mare https://www.jacoporanieri.com/blog/?p=39109

#animali #creature #molluschi #gasteropodi #predatori #neuston #velella #cnidari #prede #sopravvivenza #evoluzione #mare #oceano #galleggiamento #zattera #scienza #bolle #aria #ambiente #mediterraneo #unoscienza

#Neuston: Of Terms in Biology https://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2023/09/da-capo-of-terms-in-biology-neuston.html @STCmicrobeblog

"The presence of a gelatinous surface microlayer film had been proposed in 1983, based partly on observations of the slick associated with blooms in the #SargassoSea of the filamentous #cyanobacteria #Trichodesmium... What about the ocean surface film from the #microbial neustonian point of view? It might appear to be an immense #biofilm stretching from horizon to horizon... Estimates of its thickness range from 1 to 50 µm"

If you are interested in life on the #ocean surface, check out this Essay from
@RebeccaRHelm

The mysterious ecosystem at the ocean’s surface

http://plos.io/3uao06E

and the paper

Floating life (#neuston) & trash cluster in the #GreatPacificGarbagePatch. High neuston abundance was only known in the #SargassoSea, but @this_fionachong @RebeccaRHelm &co reveal high densities of floating life in the plastic-rich GPGP #PLOSBiology

https://plos.io/3LXY3CC

#neuston #MarineLife

"#BlaueFlotte": #Plastikmüll im Ozean von speziellem Ökosystem besiedelt

https://www.heise.de/news/Blaue-Flotte-Plastikmuell-im-Ozean-von-speziellem-Oekosystem-besiedelt-8989454.html

#Umweltverschmutzung #Plastik #Kunststoffe #Neuston