# Suspended sediment and plankton

| Figure 5 : Photograph of patches of muddy waters 20km from the coast in King Sound, Western Australia.
| Anim 9 : Recovery of a suspended sediment sampler. This sampler comprises 21 bottles collecting sediment falling through the funnel on top. Each bottle is exposed at different times and for a predetermined duration.
| Figure 6 : Photograph of bottles from the suspended sediment sampler. Note the enormous differences in the amount of sediment collected in individual bottles. A different bottle was used daily in this case.
| Figure 7 : Echo-sounding in the turbid Fly River estuary, Papua New Guinea. Note the patchiness in the distribution of scatterers in the water column, in this case mud in suspension.
| Figure 8 : Photograph of a submersible floc video camera on the deck of the mother ship.
| Figure 9 : Photograph of a submersible video camera in operation suspended from a raft, power is supplied to the light source from batteries on the inflatable boat.
| Anim 10 : Field operation of a sampler for suspended matter. Water is collected in a specially-designed 50 1 Niskin bottle with a wide mouth and no internal rubber cords. On recovery the instrument is attached to the railing and the suspended matter settles on a microscope slide with a well. Later the well is capped by glass slide inserted by pushing a piston without disturbing the sample.
| Figure 10 : Microphotograph of small inorganic mud flocs sticking to the sharp edges of a dead plankton. Such processes start the formation of the large muddy microaggregates formed in muddy coastal waters.
| Figure 11 : Microphotograph of a large microaggregate in suspension comprising a loose aggregation of mud and dead plankton, which we nicknamed muddy marine snow.
| Figure 12 : Microphotograph of mud wrapped under a diatom.
| Anim 11 : Video sequence of plankton feeding and moving along a mud floc in suspension.
| Anim 12 : Video sequence of a copepod attached by a sticky thread to a mud floc in suspension and swimming around the floc while trying to escape, like a dog on leash. It died half hour later.
| Anim 13 : Video sequence of a plankton unable to escape from a mud floc in suspension as it becomes stuck by its hooks.
| Anim 14 : Video sequence of a plankton stuck in a stringy mud floc in suspension and unable to escape, like a fly caught in a spider web.

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