Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Phytoplankton (/ ˌ f aɪ t oʊ ˈ p l æ ŋ k t ə n /) are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems.The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν (phyton), meaning 'plant', and πλαγκτός (planktos), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'.
However, the matter that makes up living organisms is conserved and recycled. The six most common elements associated with organic molecules—carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur—take a variety of chemical forms and may exist for long periods in the atmosphere, on land, in water, or beneath the Earth's surface.
Organic compounds in the form of sugars, carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins are synthesized during the process of photosynthesis: CO 2 + H 2 O + light → CH 2 O + O 2. In addition to carbon, organic matter found in phytoplankton is composed of nitrogen, phosphorus and various trace metals.
Aquatic photosynthesis is the occurrence of photosynthesis in the aquatic environment, which includes the freshwater environment and the marine (saltwater) environment. . Organisms that perform photosynthesis in the aquatic environment include but are not limited to plants, algae, cyanobacteria, [1] coral, [2] phytoplankton (also known as micro
Photosynthesis usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen, cellulose and starches.
Marine phytoplankton mostly inhabit sunlit surface waters as photoautotrophs, and require nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as sunlight to fix carbon and produce oxygen. However, some marine phytoplankton inhabit the deep sea, often near deep sea vents, as chemoautotrophs which use inorganic electron sources such as hydrogen ...
It has been estimated that half of the world's oxygen is produced by phytoplankton. [7] [8] Larger autotrophs, such as the seagrasses and macroalgae are generally confined to the littoral zone and adjacent shallow waters, where they can attach to the underlying substrate but still be within the photic zone.
Cyanobacteria such as these carry out photosynthesis.Their emergence foreshadowed the evolution of many photosynthetic plants and oxygenated Earth's atmosphere.. Biological carbon fixation, or сarbon assimilation, is the process by which living organisms convert inorganic carbon (particularly carbon dioxide, CO 2) to organic compounds.