Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

07/28/2026

Kachemak Bay Environmental Education Alliance (KBEEA) invites you to join us for our August public Discovery Lab, NATURE'S BOUNTY! Join us to learn about all the ways our local environment supports wildlife and humans! There will be interactive activities as well as an opportunity to craft! We hope you join us to celebrate the wonderous nature of Kachemak Bay! This event is fun for all ages and families. For more information on the August 14th and 15th event, contact Ingrid at (907) 299-4370 or [email protected].

07/22/2026

Our field crew had been busy monitoring streams this summer!

07/15/2026

Collaboration and education with fellow NERR educators!

We're getting NERRdy at the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Conference this week! Our Communications & Outreach Coordinator joined educators from Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve-MD, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve - VA, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR), Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to grow our skills and celebrate educating those of all ages about our beloved estuaries.

Like Jacques Cousteau said "We only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we are taught."

(PS: Did you know today is International Shark & Ray Awareness Day?! Take a moment today to celebrate our fin-tastic friends! 🦈)

07/07/2026

Kachemak Bay Environmental Education Alliance (KBEEA) invites you to join us for our July public Discovery Lab, CHANGING HABITATS! Join us to learn about peatlands, forests and local ecology. There will be interactive activities as well as an opportunity to craft! We hope you join us to celebrate the wonderous world of habitats! This event is fun for all ages and families. For more information on the 10th and 11th event, contact Katie at (907) 235-1974 or [email protected]

06/12/2026

On this episode of Phytoplankton Phriday I wanted to look at another freshwater (mostly) plankter - Dinobryon spp.! These cells sit inside a champagne glass –shaped shell called a lorica (below photo). The champagne flutes connect at the stem to form large floating colonies, which helps deter predation due to their size. Did you already guess how these cells are attached to one another? That’s right, MUCUS (they’re also covered in it!)! Dinobryon spp. can photosynthesize but also uses its flagella to create a current that draws bacteria into its champagne glass. This allows them to obtain additional nutrients in nutrient-poor areas. Imagine sitting in the bathtub as a kid and making a water vortex by swirling your hand quickly around in a circle…now imagine that is the only way you can get a floating strawberry into your mouth! Bacteria also get stuck in the mucus that connects cells together, which the colony can then take advantage of (thanks mucus!). Similarly to the leftovers in your fridge, or those crumbs stuck in your beard that you’ll snack on later. Dinobryon spp. also uses its flagella as a form of locomotion. Either to find better light or more delicious bacteria. In fact, a colony of Dinobryon spp. can eat thousands of bacteria per hour, and is important in controlling bacterial abundance in lakes and ponds. In more temperate environments this genus can form large blooms, which emits a fishy smell when the mucus breaks down. Also similar to the leftovers in your fridge!

06/05/2026

Its time for another PHYTOPLANKTON PHRIDAY! Your favorite time of the week! on this episode, I’d like to introduce you to Licmophora spp. Cells grow by themselves or in colonies (below photo), which are joined together on a common mucus stalk (Hooray for mucus! Seriously, it makes the world go ‘round folks!). This diatom is a benthic epiphyte, meaning that it is a plant that grows on other plants – or really anything it get its sticky little stalk on (I’ve even seen them attached to copepod antennae!). They attach to substrate using….you guessed it, MORE MUCUS! The length of the mucus stalk is affected by water flow. The more turbulent it is the stumpier the stalk! Licmophora spp. has a distinctive pizza shape and are pioneer biofoulers, meaning that they contribute to initial biofilm formation on submerged surfaces. The biofilm paves the way for secondary biofouling organisms such as barnacles and mussels. Licmophora spp. are often hosts to specialized parasites that end up breaking the cell to release its spores. These parasites are major players in population control for this genus, and researchers have found infection rates as high as 99% within one population of Licmophora! Species from this genus can be found in both fresh and saltwater, and in both shallow and or turbid environments, which makes Kachemak Bay a perfect home!

05/29/2026

Its time for another episode of PHYTOPLANKTON PHRIDAY! AKA your favorite day of the week! This week I’d like to introduce you to C. socialis, which is blooming in Eldred Passage this week. Like most Chaetoceros species, C. socialis is a chain-forming, spiny, centric diatom. However, this species specifically has three short spines and one gigantically long spine that bundles the cells together in colonies like a bunch of balloons covered in mucus. This formation slows the rate of sinking by increasing their surface area. Their mucus covering and increased surface area also means things can easily get stuck within the colony, making C.socialis an important part of marine snow. Marine snow forms when decaying matter begins slowly falling from the surface layers to the deep sea, along the way sticking together and forming clumps. Similarly to how hail forms from water droplets accumulating ice as it falls to the ground. Except now imagine if the hail was made of hamburger globs that accumulate more delicious food bits as it falls into our yards! Yum! Marine snow acts as an essential food source for deep sea organisms and plays a role in carbon sequestration (Yay for mucus!). C. socialis are affiliated with meltwater in polar regions, which makes sense in the very glacially influenced Kachemak Bay. The cells can also bioluminesce, meaning that they disperse excess solar energy gained from photosynthesis in the form of light. Shiny!

05/22/2026

Welcome back to Phytoplankton Phriday!
I’d like to introduce you to a fun balloon shaped phytoplankter that was seen in Sadie Cove this week - Noctiluca scintillans! This is a naked dinoflagellate genus (how indecent!) found close to river mouths after rainfall, which makes sense with this wet Spring we are having. This species has one tiny flagellum and one large te****le, which it uses to capture and pull prey items to its mouth hole (cytostome) – like the Sarlacc in Star Wars. Unlike the Sarlacc however, Noctiluca’s te****le doesn’t use traditional muscle to move, but instead uses changes in the electric potential across the cell membrane to involuntarily contract specialized protein filaments. This genus doesn’t photosynthesize, instead relying on its unique te****le to create a mucus thread (yay for mucus!) to capture food items – like if you were to go fishing with a chewed-up string of gum. It can also form a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic diatoms that help provide it with energy. Noctiluca is also known as a “sea sparkle” due to its ability to produce light (bioluminescence) if its squishy cell membrane gets disturbed – for example when boats create a wake. This would be a super helpful feature in parenting, it would be easy to tell which of your kids pushed their sibling, who would be lit up like a glowstick! The intensity of the light that Noctiluca produces is influenced by how much light they got the previous day. It is thought that bioluminescence is used to deter predators. Imagine shining a really bright flashlight into the eyes of someone trying to steal your lunch. That’s life for Noctiluca!

05/16/2026

Welcome back to Phytoplankton Phriday! This week, I have a secret that I think its time I share with you all – I have freshwater phytoplankton samples that I’m beginning to look at! Scandalous I know. But good news for you all because that means that I get to share the occasional freshwater genus, and this one is a doozy! Didymosphenia spp. is also known by the common name “rock snot” because of the rope-like film they create on rocks and other surfaces in high latitude northern hemisphere rivers. This raphid (has a raphe) diatom secretes a mucus stalk that it uses to attach to rocks or other submerged surfaces. When the cells divide so does the stalk, which eventually forms a gelatinous mass of branches that feel like wet wool…delicious. The stalks are made of polysaccharides and proteins, which allows them to resist break down. It’s therefore not the cell itself that creates the snot on rocks, but the stalks, which in some areas can be so thick that it appears like the riverbed is covered in a thick felt. They can even form long threads that can be up to a meter long! Even though Didymosphenia spp. aren’t toxic, they can affect fish spawning grounds and clog fishing nets and pipes. They are considered invasive in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Chilie, and are increasing in abundance within their native distributions. They actually prefer areas that are low in nutrients, and the overproduction of stalks has been hypothesized to be

05/08/2026

Hello Phytoplankton Enthusiasts! Its that time of year again (even though it may not look like it outside...), PHYTOPLANKTON PHRIDAY! Where each Friday you get to read about a different plankter living right here is Kachemak Bay!
This week, I want to introduce you to the beautiful Pleurosigma spp.! This genus is primarily a benthic solitary diatom found in sediments, though some species can also be planktonic. There are over 700 species in this genus, with the majority being found in brackish or saltwater. They have a slight sigmoid shape (think the letter ‘S’ but someone pulled the ends so it wasn’t as squiggly) and have a slit that runs the entire length of the cell called a raphe (ray-fee). The raphe is the most significant evolutionary development for diatoms since it is through this feature that they can locomote. Not only do they secrete a mucus that allows them to glide along whatever they are sitting on, but they also create MUCUS TENTACLES that come out of the raphe to help push the cell along! Imagine if your mucus was that talented, you could do so many things! Snacking while you work, turning off a light after you lay down, even sneakily stealing a candy from your sibling…using only the natural creations of your nose! What is perhaps unsettling for humans is a fabulous adaptation for diatoms that allows them to move to find the most favorable conditions and to colonize new areas. Hooray for mucus!