On June 9th, 2021 AYLUS Riverside County members Jacob Navarro, Chandler Berry, and Sophie Chung got together via Zoom to conduct some research on plankton. Sophie Chung introduced the group to the project via a slideshow she had created. First, she gave a little intro about AYLUS and the PVSA since they had a new member join them. She then explained why plankton is important to our ecosystem and how the group could help support this research project that was started by an Oregon State University team. She went on to describe the two main types of plankton: Phytoplankton (plant-based) and Zooplankton (animal-based). She furthermore revealed why the Phytoplankton holds the key to our oxygen levels in the atmosphere and how it is an indicator of the health of our oceans. Phytoplankton is a main player within the carbon cycle since it absorbs most of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the air. The group then watched a short video that explained a bit more in-depth the life of plankton.
Then she walked the team through the different steps of this project by showcasing different types of scenarios that could appear and how to categorize an image. The team analyzed a few different plankton pictures together before branching out individually and working on classifying different images based on the parameters they just had discussed. By contributing to this project the team has helped scientists study the impact that plankton has on the health of our oceans.
Volunteers: Chandler Berry (1 hr), Jacob Navarro (1 hr), Sophie Chung (1 hr).
