This is so cool! There is an annual mass #biodiversity experiment in Danish schools, which this year involved 30,000 kids collecting + examining samples of moss + lichen. Only 5% have been examined so far but they've already discovered 5 species of water bear unknown to science.
There’s a German term used in biology for today’s #SciArtSeptember prompt “overgrowth”: aufwuchs. 🐡🧪🌿It means the collection of small plants & animals that adhere to surfaces. At sea, in my field, we geophysicists tend to call the algae etc. that grows on equipment “biofouling.” In freshwater you get algae, insect larvae, rotifers & tardigrades, like this one.