The Arctic Wonders series (3/3)

Drift magnifies the intricate lives of Arctic zooplankton, revealing behaviors of predation, symbiosis, and survival within organisms small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.

Drift was created for the permanent Change exhibition with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions—focuses on the microscopic world of Arctic zooplankton.

At left, the sea angel Clione limacina pursues its preferred prey, the sea butterfly Limacina helicina. Though nearly invisible to the naked eye, these species play a critical role in Arctic food webs. Other featured organisms include the amphipod Hyperiid, known for carrying sea butterflies as chemical shields; the red and yellow shrimp Hymendora glacialis, which hitches rides on pelagic jellyfish; and polychaete worms, normally hidden in sediment but shown here mid-swim.

Together, these magnified creatures capture the fragile ingenuity of life in Arctic waters—a world of drifting, clinging, and adapting on the edge of change.

Special thanks to National Geographic, Lindblad, and all the biologists who made this painting possible. Most of all, Steven Haddock and Wyatt Patry from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Bart Shepard from the CA Academy of Sciences, and Alexander Semenov at Moscow State University’s White Sea Biological Station, and Charlotte Havermans from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.