Diversity of Planktonic Life Project
For a sample collection of Mark's plankton images please click here. Also Mark's images can be found at the University of British Columbia's Biomedia Image and Movie Database. You can see Mark's collections of images or see all of Mark's images there.
The following is a quote by the eminent entomologist and naturalist Thomas Eisner, a gem of prose that Mark believes encapsulates the joyous spirit of the investigative mind. "I found out later that there is nothing new about these observations. Others had made them years earlier. There is a saying that "5 minutes in the library can save you weeks in the laboratory," which has considerable merit. I prefer the naturalist's version, which says that "weeks in the field can save you minutes in the library." But be that as it may, it does pay to check the literature before yielding to the assumption that a given observation is a genuine discovery. This exercise does not detract from the sheer joy you experience when you learn something from nature that you didn’t know before. Finding out later that your "discovery" was no discovery at all in no way diminishes the pleasure of the recollection. There are countless observations that I made that turned out later to be "old hat." What I remember about these observations is the pleasure of experiencing them, not how I reacted when I discovered the published accounts. The naturalist explorer need not always be a pioneer. To discover for yourself what is already known can still be a source of wonder--which is why the study of nature can never disappoint. Truth is, though, that what we do know about nature is dwarfed by the immensity of what we don't know. It was not until 30 years after the trip with Ed Wilson that I linked up with antlions again, and this time I found out something about them that was not already in books." (p.267-268-For Love of Insects, Thomas Eisner, Harvard University Press, 2003.)
Microscopic Images of Plankton and the U.B.C. Biomedia Database
Mark Webber's microscopic images of plankton, numbering in the hundreds are to be found at the University of British Columbia's Biomedia Image and Movie Database. You can see Mark's collections of images or see all of Mark's images. Also at the Biomedia web site you will find other contributors and their fine collections of biological microscopic images. Mark's images are being added to the Biomedia site on a regular basis. Collections of images are taxonomically organized and where ever possible identifications are made to the genus and species levels.
Mark collaborates with many specialists worldwide to double check and lend assistance to the process of making accurate identifications. "The Biomedia database is designed to provide Cell Biology students with a large number of images and movies of cell structure from a wide variety of cell types. The images and movies have been generated using high quality light microscopes, transmission electron microscopes(TEM) and scanning electron microscopes (SEM), such as the ones found in the U.B.C. Bioimaging Facility".
Mark is collaborating with UBC's BioImaging facility and Electron Microscope Lab, in producing SEM images of plankton from worldwide sources. Many thanks to Dr. Lacey Samuels (UBC BioMedia site, Dept. of Botany, Garnet Martins (Research Manager, UBC BioImaging Facility) and Derrick Horn (EM Technician) for ongoing assistance in this project. Also thank you to Dr. Ellen Rosenberg , Department of Botany, and all the fine technicians at the Bioimaging facility.
Equipment; A Swift Portable field microscope FM-31 (x40, phase contrast) and a Leica Stereo-microscope GZ 6T. Also a Leitz Dialux and Leitz Diavert light microscopes .Images are acquired with a Nikon Coolpix 4500. Currently 20 and 60 micron plankton nets are used for gathering marine and freshwater samples.
Images, unless SEM, are of fresh, unstained non-preserved organisms. (All images by Mark Webber unless indicated starting in 2003)
Any suggestions, corrections or comments about identifications are very welcome.
This page was last updated September 26, 2007
