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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'.
If phytoplankton dies before it is eaten, it descends through the euphotic zone as part of the marine snow and settles into the depths of sea. In this way, phytoplankton sequester about 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the ocean each year, causing the ocean to become a sink of carbon dioxide holding about 90% of all sequestered carbon. [16]
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 25 January 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 ...
The trophic level of a species may vary if it has a choice of diet. Virtually all plants and phytoplankton are purely phototrophic and are at exactly level 1.0. Many worms are at around 2.1; insects 2.2; jellyfish 3.0; birds 3.6. [9] A 2013 study estimates the average trophic level of human beings at 2.21, similar to pigs or anchovies. [10]
Order (Latin: ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class . In biological classification , the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes .
Phytoplankton grows in the upper light-lit layer of the ocean, where the amount of inorganic nutrients, light, and temperature vary spatially and temporally. [84] Laboratory studies show that these fluctuations trigger responses at the cellular level, whereby cells modify resource allocation in order to adapt optimally to their ambient ...
In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank [1] because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in a hierarchy that reflects evolutionary relationships.
They are phytoplankton typically found in freshwater and marine systems, living in both the water column and sediment. [1] They are unicellular species which exist individually, or in chains or groups. Depending on the species, their sizes can range from a few micrometers (μm) to a few hundred micrometers.