Settling Plate Research Project

California Academy of Sciences

Home     What is a Settling Plate?     Settling Plate Organisms     Participating Schools      Get Involved!

A settling plate is simply an artificial habitat for colonizing organisms which begin life as free-floating plankton, then settle out of the water column and attach themselves onto hard substrates (the settling plate). Deploying a clean settling plate into the water and periodically recording the types and numbers of organisms that have settled on the plate allows students to explore:

• Temporal changes and patterns in species diversity
• Temporal changes and patterns in species abundance
• Monitoring of invasive species
• Marine succession patterns

Deploying plates during different time of the year and in different locations allows exploration of other questions, such as:

• Seasonal and annual changes in species diversity and species abundance
• Geographical differences in species diversity and species abundance

Plate before deployment	Plate after 3 months in the water

Settling plates are best deployed on floating docks. Since floating docks rise and fall with the tides, they are never left dry. For this reason they are home to a unique group of animals and plants called "dock-fouling organisms". During the spring there is a peak in reproduction of dock-fouling organisms and therefore enormous competition among their larvae for places to settle. This is a good time of year to deploy your settling plates to observe rapid changes.

Dock-fouling organisms