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This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 5 February 2025. Organisms living in water or air that are drifters on the current or wind This article is about the marine organisms. For other uses, see Plankton (disambiguation). Marine microplankton and mesoplankton Part of the contents of one dip of a hand net. The image contains diverse planktonic ...
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'.
Isopods look like those insects we see in the dirt as kids that we called pill bugs or roly polys. They are segmented and flattened from top to bottom. Both plankton play a huge role in keeping ...
Pegea confederata on a 1995 stamp from Azerbaijan. A salp (pl.: salps, also known colloquially as “sea grape”) or salpa (pl.: salpae or salpas [2]) is a barrel-shaped, planktonic tunicate in the family Salpidae.
Zooplankton can be contrasted with phytoplankton (cyanobacteria and microalgae), which are the plant-like component of the plankton community (the "phyto-" prefix comes from Ancient Greek: φῠτόν, romanized: phutón, lit. 'plant', although taxonomically not plants).
Copepods (/ ˈ k oʊ p ə p ɒ d /; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat.Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthic (living on the sediments), several species have parasitic phases, and some continental species may live in limnoterrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as ...
Meroplankton can be contrasted with holoplankton, which are planktonic organisms that stay in the pelagic zone as plankton throughout their entire life cycle. [3] After a period of time in the plankton, many meroplankton graduate to the nekton or adopt a benthic (often sessile) lifestyle on the seafloor.
Bacterioplankton abundance depends on environmental variables like temperature, nutrient availability and predation. Like other small plankton, the bacterioplankton are preyed upon by zooplankton (usually protozoans), and their numbers are also controlled through infection by bacteriophages.