Plankton
Some marine diatoms—a key phytoplankton group
DETAILS/DESCRIPTION:
Plankton are tiny plants and animals that live in the sea and it was Hensen*, the director of the Plankton Expedition of 1889, who first applied the term to these tiny marine organisms.
The word “plankton” is derived from the Greek word for “wanderers”. Many are passive wanderers, or permanent floaters, that drift with the motion of the water. Others are active, with whip-like flagellae that allow for independent movement. Plankton live in fresh or marine environments and are either photosynthesizing organisms, or not.
There are two basic groups of plankton:- plant and animal. The first is known as phytoplankton, while the other is referred to as zooplankton. Zooplankton includes many larvae and eggs. Phytoplankton belongs to the most primitive of plant groups. The smallest plankton is microscopic, though some plankton can be seen with the naked eye.
Plankton can be unicellular, colonial, or multicellular. The most important phytoplankton, the dinoflagellates and the diatoms, harness the sun’s energy (through photosynthesis) and produce organic compounds. Plankton from the oceans provides food for most marine creatures - directly or indirectly.
ONELINER: Plankton are tiny sea plants and animals
OTHER CONNECTIONS: Plankton from the oceans provides food for most marine creatures - directly or indirectly. Aside from representing the bottom few levels of a food chain that supports commercially important fisheries, plankton ecosystems play a role in the biogeochemical cycles of many important chemical elements, including the ocean's carbon cycle.[51] Fish larvae mainly eat zooplankton, which in turn eat phytoplankton
See Kieselguhr/Diatomaceous earth DTE
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Charton, Barbara, The Facts on File Dictionary of Marine Science, Checkmark Books: New York, 2001.
Ellis, Richard, Encyclopedia of the Sea, Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2000.
Groves, Donald G. & Lee M. Hunt, Ocean World Encyclopedia, McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York, 1980.