Researchers vacuum myriad tiny, swimming creatures from the surface of rocks off the coast of Southern Italy. Image courtesy of Kristy Kroeker.
Kristy Kroeker vacuums invertebrates from a rock off the coast of Southern Italy. Her SCUBA-tank powered vacuum, called an “airlift,” inhales shrimp, sand fleas, marine worms, and “things that would swim away if they had the chance.” With a chisel and mallet, she then removes a layer of rock to collect the barnacles, snails, limpets, and algae attached to it. Back at the laboratory, all is sorted and identified under a dissecting microscope.
Read the full Inner Workings by Danielle Venton here.