Phytoplankton are photosynthetic organisms which are suspended in the water column.
The project was initially undertaken to provide a resource for aquaculture students at Clemson that would allow them to become familiar with phytoplankton that they might encounter in their research. The photographic collection was begun in October 1998, and is in progress and incomplete. Since the addition of new organisms would quickly render any hard copy version obsolete, this format was chosen in order to maintain flexibility as the collection grows. Clicking on a genus from the list will produce a display of available thumbnail images for that genus. Selecting an indivdual thumbnail image will enlarge the image to its original size.