Victor Hensen proposed the term plankton in 1887.
Most small green algae are freshwater phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton take up carbon dioxide from the air, helping to regulate the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and maintain the Earth's climate balance.
Whales are not only major consumers of krill but also play a critical role in sustaining krill populations, acting as ecosystem engineers.
Smaller organisms become more abundant while larger organisms decrease in number.
Prochlorococcus is a genus of marine cyanobacteria that is one of the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the ocean.
The daily vertical movement of marine organisms usually between deeper water by day and the midwater or surface by night. It is the most common type of migration and occurs in all types of water bodies throughout the year.
Winds play a strong role in the distribution of phytoplankton.
Meroplankton are organisms that are only planktic for part of their lives, usually during the larval stage, before transitioning to a nektic or benthic existence. Examples include larvae of sea urchins, starfish, crustaceans, marine worms, and most fish.
All plankton ecosystems are driven by the input of solar energy except for chemosynthesis.
Cyanobacterial bloom
They regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Zooplankton stay in deep layers during winter and fall to conserve energy for traveling to upper layers.
Coccolithophores are calcifying plankton that drive the carbonate pump by sequestering carbon as they sink to the seafloor.
Diatoms produce 20 - 30% of the oxygen that we breathe.
Benthos accelerate detrital decomposition and release bound nutrients into solution through their feeding activities, excretion, and burrowing into sediments.
Many benthic invertebrates are predators that control the numbers, locations, and sizes of their prey.
Photo-pigments are compounds that absorb light and are crucial for photosynthesis in phytoplankton.
~1 – 10%
Light dependent predation by fish is a common pressure that causes DVM behavior, making it advantageous for zooplankton to migrate to deep water during the day and come to the surface at night for feeding.
~50%
W. Florida
They connect diurnal vertical migration of zooplankton with fish feeding habits.
Common types of phytoplankton include Diatoms, Cyanobacteria, silica-encased dinoflagellates, green algae, and chalk-coated Coccolithophores.
Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that play a huge role in the marine food web.
Ocean fertilization can stimulate photosynthesis in phytoplankton by 30 times.
30 species.
53 species.
The biological pump is the set of processes by which inorganic carbon (e.g., CO2) is fixed into organic matter via photosynthesis and then sequestered away from the atmosphere generally by transport into the deep ocean.
Global Chlorophyll distribution and Global Zooplankton Distribution.
Benthos transform organic detritus from sedimentary storage into dissolved nutrients, which can be mixed into overlying waters and used by rooted plants and algae to enhance primary productivity.
The study of the relationships of benthos and their unique and diverse environment.
Some benthic species are omnivores and feed on macrophytes, algae, and zooplankton.
The biggest challenge is a severely limited food supply, as most organic matter is eaten before it reaches the bottom.
'Marine snow' is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column.
Bacteria at hydrothermal vents turn chemicals rising from the seafloor into food, supporting themselves and a web of symbionts, predators, and scavengers.
Dinoflagellates are a group of single-celled organisms that can be photosynthetic or heterotrophic, often contributing to harmful algal blooms.
Synechococcus is a genus of cyanobacteria that plays a significant role in marine ecosystems as a primary producer.
The carbonate pump is a process of ocean carbon sequestration driven by calcifying plankton, specifically Coccolithophore, which releases CO2 back into the atmosphere but sequesters it by sinking to the seafloor.
It facilitates the active transport of organic material to the sea floor through the trophic ladder.
Phytoplankton are primary producers that convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis, forming the base of the aquatic food web.
Mixotrophs can use photosynthesis for growth when nutrients and light are abundant, but switch to consuming phytoplankton, zooplankton, or each other when growing conditions are poor.
It is part-related to their morphology and affects their requirements and dynamics.
They will replace species that are adapted to cooler waters, leading to new community combinations.
It reduces metabolic rates, allowing for a more efficient use of food.
The spring bloom is stimulated by increasing light intensity, warming, and stratification of the upper layers, along with leftover nutrients from winter.
13,000 species.
HNLC stands for High Nutrients, Low Chlorophyll.
Mixotrophs are organisms that use a mix of different sources of energy and carbon, acting as both producers and consumers, either simultaneously or by switching modes based on environmental conditions.
The iron-rich faeces deposited by sperm whales in the Southern Ocean causes phytoplankton to grow and take up carbon.
Organisms that are planktonic for their entire life cycle.
Phytoplankton perform photosynthesis to convert the sun’s energy, taking in carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.
Diversity is higher in tropical and temperate zones.
DVM allows zooplankton to access food in surface water while reducing vulnerability to visual predators.
Low food supply may enhance or suppress DVM.
It enhances gene flow.
Aeroplankton consists of tiny lifeforms that float and drift in the air, including numerous microbes, viruses, bacteria, fungi, and various species of protists, algae, mosses, and liverworts, often as spores and pollen.
Mixed algal bloom
The major HNLC zones include the North Pacific, the Equatorial Pacific, and the Southern Ocean.
Plankton have traditionally been categorized as producers (autotrophs), consumers (heterotrophs), and recyclers.
Plankton, particularly phytoplankton, play a vital role in carbon cycling by absorbing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and contributing to the biological carbon pump.
On the ocean floor, either on the substrate (epifauna and epiflora) or buried/burrowing in the sediment (infauna).
Krill have a total biomass of approximately 400 million tonnes.
Benthic invertebrates release bound nutrients into solution by their feeding activities, excretion, and burrowing into sediments.
Phytoplankton photo-pigments serve as indicators of estuarine and coastal eutrophication.
Plankton refers to the diverse group of organisms that drift in water bodies and cannot swim against currents.
They are in the larval stage of fauna in higher trophic levels.
As phytoplankton die, a small fraction of the carbon they took in sinks below the sunlight layers of the ocean, becoming food for deeper dwelling animals and nourishment for bacteria, which release it back into inorganic forms like CO2.
Phytoplankton generate about half of the atmosphere's oxygen.
Coccolithophores are unicellular, autotrophic organisms less than 8 μm in size, with about 200 species.
The tow net is lowered to the desired depth and raised at 0.5 meters per second.
Phytoplankton are autotrophic prokaryotic or eukaryotic algae that live near the water surface where there is sufficient light to support photosynthesis.
Micronutrient limitations, such as lower quantities of Iron, Zinc, and Cobalt, are present in HNLC regions.
Small zooplankton migrate to deep mesopelagic waters during the day.
Bacterioplankton include bacteria and archaea that play an important role in remineralising organic material down the water column.
Diatom species range from 20,000 to 2 million, with new species being discovered every year.
Intertidal or littoral zone, stony or calcareous rocks, coral reefs, marshes and sediments, submarine ridges and canyons, abyssal plain, and kelp forests.
Ocean fertilization is a technology for carbon dioxide removal from the ocean that involves introducing plant nutrients to the upper ocean to increase marine food production and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Diatoms are a major group of microalgae known for their unique silica cell walls and are important primary producers in aquatic environments.
The major estuarine phytoplankton groups include diatoms, dinoflagellates, and cyanobacteria.
Community structure of phytoplankton is affected by biotic factors like grazing pressure, competitive exclusion, and predation, as well as abiotic factors like temperature, light, nutrients, and water regime.
The oceans have absorbed about one third of human CO2 emissions through the solubility pump.
In the lagoonal Neuse River - Pamlico Sound
The physical pump is the physio-chemical process that transports carbon from the ocean surface to its interior, allowing it to be stored for hundreds of years.
They maintain the biological structure of the food web as grazers and balance the aquatic ecosystem.
Excessive nutrients and warm temperatures can lead to conditions that result in cyanobacterial blooms, characterized by bad-smelling, decaying, and gelatinous scum.
They indicate changes in eutrophication, heavy metal load, and physicochemical parameters in their early stages.
Some creatures in the benthic zone attach themselves to rocks, boulders, or the sea floor.
Zooplankton samples are fixed with Alcohol or 40% Formaline.
Primary production is low due to limited nutrients such as nitrate, phosphate, and silicate, resulting from large-scale ocean circulation and water column stratification.
Geologic circumstances such as hydrothermal vents and deep-water coral reefs can lead to complex communities brimming with life.
Benthic invertebrates supply food for both aquatic and terrestrial vertebrate consumers, such as fishes, turtles, and birds.
Dinoflagellate red tide
They consist of unicellular and multicellular organisms with different sizes, shapes, feeding strategies, ecological functions, life cycle characteristics, and environmental sensitivities.
They alter the prey population of other planktonic groups.
4000 - 5000 legitimate species, with likely 100 thousand different species.
By feeding in the warm surface waters at night and residing in the cooler deep water during the day, organisms can conserve energy.
Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that live in watery environments, both salty and fresh.
DMS escapes into the atmosphere where it forms sulfate aerosols and encourages cloud formation, which could reduce warming.
Phytoplankton can include bacteria, protists, and most are single-celled plants.
Changes in temperature, salinity, pH level, and nutrient concentration of the water.
Zooplankton are small protozoans or metazoans, such as crustaceans, that feed on other plankton.
Dinoflagellates form symbiotic relationships with corals (zooxanthellae), jellyfish, sea anemones, and others.
Dinoflagellate red tide
The name 'diatom' means 'cut in two' in Greek.
Zooplankton serve as an intermediary species, acting as carriers of energy from phytoplankton to higher trophic levels including fish, whales, crabs, shrimp, sea turtles, and birds.
Local abundance of plankton varies horizontally, vertically, and seasonally due to both physical and biological processes.
They sink faster and to greater depths before the carbon is decomposed back to CO2.
Fresh water plankton is found inland in the freshwaters of lakes and rivers, similar to marine plankton.
The lack of rigid relations (i.e. space occupation) between these organisms living suspended in water is probably one of the main sources of zooplankton diversity.
Ontogenetic migration is dependent on an organism’s life stage, sex, and biological rhythm, and is only observed in copepods.
High levels of cyanobacteria growth are due to high nutrient levels and low dissolved oxygen, resulting in degraded biological conditions of the water resource.
Phytoplankton exhibit a wide variety of shape, size, and phylogenetic affinity.
It is important for ecosystem stability and marine biogeochemistry.
Reduces the total alkalinity of seawater and releases CO2.
In the Baltic Sea
Dinoflagellate bloom
A variety of aquatic organisms that have both planktonic and benthic stages in their life cycles, often consisting of larval stages of larger organisms.
Krill are the basis of the food web in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, with most marine species depending on them for survival.
Holoplankton are organisms that spend their entire life cycle as plankton. Examples include most algae, copepods, salps, and some jellyfish.
Benthic organisms accelerate nutrient transfer to overlying open waters of lakes and oceans.
They remain dormant to hatch in harmony with the spring bloom, maximizing benefits from the rich food supply.
Phytoplankton form the base of virtually every ocean food web.
Geoplankton live in terrestrial environments, thriving in transient microscopic bodies of water and moisture, including rotifers and gastrotrichs that can lay resilient eggs capable of surviving in dry environments.
The tow net (> 180 μm) (WP2 Nets) is used for zooplankton collection.
Due to whaling in the Southern Ocean, an extra 2 million tonnes of carbon remains in the atmosphere each year.
During the day, phytoplankton produce lipids, increase their buoyancy, and remain at the surface.
The eggs and larvae of fish, mostly found in the sunlit zone of the water column, less than 200 m.
The tow net (10 μm, 20 μm, or 25 μm) is used for phytoplankton collection.
Coccolithophores are important for carbon cycling and sequestration, playing a role in global climate change.
Fertilization could trigger toxic algal blooms, which are common in coastal areas, and chronic fertilization could lead to the creation of dead zones, such as in the Gulf of Mexico.
Diatoms can be solitary or live in colonies that may be shaped like long chains, stars, or zigzags.
Dinoflagellates are a group of single-celled eukaryotes that constitute the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered protists.
Algal blooms that sometimes release toxins detrimental to fish, other animals, and humans.
Silica transport proteins are unique to diatoms.
Size range of < 0.2 μm; primarily consists of marine viruses.
The two main shapes of diatoms are centric (radial symmetric) and pennate (bilateral symmetric).
Krill's daily vertical migration provides food for surface feeders at night and deeper waters during the day.
Zooplankton distribution varies, with higher diversity found in tropical and temperate zones.
Protozoa, Rotifers, Medusa, Pieropoda, Cladocera, Ostracoda, Copepoda, Amphipoda.
HNLC regions are ocean areas that have significant macronutrient concentrations (nitrate, phosphate, silicic acid) but remain unproductive.
The solubility pump is a process where CO2 from the air dissolves in water, undergoing chemical reactions, with colder water absorbing more CO2 and transporting it to depth.
The two main types of plankton are phytoplankton (plant-like organisms) and zooplankton (animal-like organisms).
Zooplankton ranges from the most primitive unicellular organisms (protists) to vertebrates (fish larvae).
It is important in establishing ecosystem structure and function, affecting aquatic food webs and biogeochemistry.
Increases the sinking velocity of photosynthetically fixed CO2 into the deep ocean by ballasting organic matter.
Iron is a critical phytoplankton micronutrient necessary for enzyme catalysis and electron transport.
Yes, mixotrophs combine autotrophy and heterotrophy, allowing them to produce their own food and also ingest other organisms for carbon.
Krill populations have declined dramatically since commercial whaling began.
Benthos are classified as epifauna or infauna based on their living habits.
Phytoplankton blooms serve as food for zooplankton, which in turn feed fish, potentially increasing fish catches. However, if poor quality phytoplankton dominate, the increase in fish quantity may be limited.
The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Size range of 20 to 200 μm; includes large eukaryotic protists, most phytoplankton, Foraminifera, tintinnids, and juvenile metazoans.
Dinoflagellates are substantially smaller than diatoms.
Diatomaceous earth, composed of fossil diatoms, is used in filters, insulation, abrasives, paints, varnishes, and as a base in dynamite.
Diatoms are vital for assessing and monitoring the biotic condition of waters due to their distinct ranges of pH, salinity, and tolerances for various environmental variables.
The purpose is to increase marine food production and to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
These changes could negatively impact the ecological pyramid, which in turn affects fish yields.
Marine plankton includes marine bacteria and archaea, algae, protozoa, and drifting or floating animals that inhabit the saltwater of oceans and the brackish waters of estuaries.
Seasonal migration typically involves movements several hundred meters between the surface layer and overwintering depths, particularly in high-latitude regions, occurring in the surface during late winter/early spring and late summer/early fall.
Cyanobacteria naturally occur in freshwater ecosystems but can also be found in coastal areas adjacent to river runoff.
Sperm whales transport iron from the deep ocean to the surface during prey consumption and defecation, depositing iron-rich faeces into surface waters.
HNLC regions are characterized by low and fairly constant abundance of phytoplankton despite the availability of macronutrients.
Zooplankton serve as a crucial food source for larger marine animals, including fish and whales, thus playing a key role in the marine food web.
Vertical migration refers to the rhythmic movement of plankton, where they move up to the surface at night and migrate to deeper waters during the day.
Factors include temperature and stratification, inorganic nutrient and light availability, and zooplankton grazing.
Large cyanobacteria blooms may affect benthic macro-invertebrates and submerged aquatic plants due to decreased light penetration.
Phytoplankton engage in the 'biological pump' and 'counter carbonate pump'.
The Redfield ratio is 106 carbon: 16 nitrogen: 1 phosphorus: 0.0001 iron, indicating that each atom of iron helps capture 1,060,000 atoms of carbon.
Phytoplankton provide essential fatty and amino acids, vitamins, and carotenoids.
The actual diatom fits inside the cell wall, with one half fitting over the second half like a lid.
Due to density stratification and the slower circulation of the deep ocean.
It is a key player in the Earth’s carbon cycle, with the suspended inorganic carbon in the deep ocean amounting to about 70 times more carbon than is found in the atmosphere.
Marine benthic organisms are well adapted to thrive in cold, dark waters of the deep sea, exhibiting low metabolic rates and requiring less light and food.
9 communities.
The carbonate pump is also referred to as the carbonate counter pump.
Coccolithophores are the most productive calcifying organisms on the planet, contributing to 40% of primary production.
Diatoms are unicellular eukaryotes and the most common group of main producers in the ocean, often referred to as the 'Pearl of Ocean'.
Sessile organisms, which are attached to a firm surface, and mobile organisms, which move freely on or in the bottom sediment.
Ecosystem disruption implies that fertilization must be restricted to areas where vulnerable populations are not at risk.
Significant changes in plankton distribution are expected as climate heats up and ocean temperatures rise.
Virioplankton are viruses that are more abundant in the plankton than bacteria and archaea, though they are much smaller.
Plankton that are protected with mineralized shells or tests, such as those made of CaCO3 and SiO2.
Dinoflagellate populations vary with sea surface temperature, salinity, and depth.
They can lead to issues in drinking water for communities nearby and upstream from dead zones.
The absorption of CO2 by the oceans leads to ocean acidification.
Holoplankton are species that spend their entire life suspended in water, without any contact with solid surfaces.
Organisms can use deep and shallow currents to find food patches or to maintain geographical locations.
Meroplankton are bottom-living marine invertebrates and fishes that have a transitory planktonic life, usually during their first larval stages.
In HNLC regions, nitrogen is never significantly depleted, even though it tends to be a limiting nutrient in the ocean.
Rising temperatures are likely to reduce the supply of nutrients from the deep ocean, leading to fewer phytoplankton and potentially slowing down the biological pump, which could leave more CO2 in the atmosphere.
Phytoplankton diversity is particularly high in the seas of the Indonesian-Australian archipelago, parts of the Indian Ocean, and the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Organisms that are carried into the plankton through disturbances of their benthic habitat or by winds and currents.
Size range of 2 to 20 cm; examples include Pteropoda, Chaetognaths, Euphausiacea (krill), Medusae, ctenophores, and various gastropods.
They can affect the central nervous system of fish, birds, mammals, and other animals.
Dinoflagellates can exist as endosymbionts, parasites, or in a resting stage known as dinocysts.
Dinoflagellates can cause harmful algal blooms known as red tides, which result in shellfish poisoning and can kill fish, marine mammals, birds, and turtles. They also exhibit bioluminescence and form symbiotic relationships with larger animals.
Cyanobacterial bloom
Sunlight can penetrate and damage organisms that live close to the surface, so they migrate to avoid UV damage during daylight.
They influence the efficiency of the biological carbon pump and the oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2.
Plankton may migrate poleward, leading to the formation of new communities with unforeseeable consequences for marine food webs and the species of plankton that might thrive in the future.
Coccolithophores protect themselves against microzooplankton predation with their coccosphere.
High phytoplankton diversity is due to temperature-induced high metabolism, mutations in genetic material, and speciation.
Diatoms store food as oil droplets and contain pigments such as fucoxanthin, chlorophyll, and carotenoids.
Latest estimates suggest a total of 2,294 living dinoflagellate species, including marine, freshwater, and parasitic dinoflagellates.
Fragile animals that live in the water column in the ocean, with delicate bodies that have no hard parts and are easily damaged.
Karenia brevis produces brevetoxins that accumulate in shellfish, leading to shellfish poisoning and harming marine ecosystems.
They tend to be dominated by smaller phytoplankton species that support complex food webs with efficient elemental recycling in the upper sunlit photic layer.
Diatom cell walls contain a lot of silica, which gives them a glass-like structure.
Sea anemones, sponges, corals, sea stars, sea urchins, worms, bivalves, and crabs.
Phytoplankton samples are fixed with Lugol’s Solution.
Phytoplankton diversity continues to increase, while zooplankton diversity decreases, leading to a reduction in zooplankton diversity in the tropics.
Oxygen depletion zones or dead zones where aquatic life cannot survive.
They support nutrient cycling, primary production, air quality, and climate regulation.
Resource competition is commonly viewed as an important governing factor for community structuring, which is reflected in modern ecosystem models.
Small zooplankton feed on smaller plankton at night.
In more dynamic environments, the biomass of larger phytoplankton is often enhanced, leading to shorter food chains and increased material export to depth.
Organisms that attach themselves to planktonic organisms or other floating objects, such as drifting wood or buoyant shells.
Alkenones are produced by coccolithophores and are commonly used to estimate past sea surface temperatures as a proxy.
Some dinoflagellates exhibit bioluminescence, primarily emitting blue-green light through a chemical reaction involving luciferin and luciferase.
A coccosphere is a calcium carbonate shell produced by coccolithophores, made up of plates called coccoliths.
Zooplankton transfer organic carbon to depth during their migration.
Warmer water generally promotes greater diversity, leading to an expected increase in the diversity of both phytoplankton and zooplankton across many regions.
As ocean acidity increases, coccolithophores' coccoliths may become even more important as a carbon sink.
Many dinoflagellates are photosynthetic, but a large fraction are heterotrophic or mixotrophic.
Mycoplankton includes fungi and fungus-like organisms that are significant in remineralisation and nutrient cycling.
> 20 cm; examples include metazoans such as jellyfish, ctenophores, salps, pyrosomes, Cephalopoda, and Amphipoda.
Plankton blooms can affect the physical properties of surface waters by absorbing light and heat, potentially hindering photosynthesis of deeper sea life and releasing N2O, counteracting carbon sequestration effects.
Size range of 0.2 to 2 μm; examples include bacteria and Chrysophyta.
The tow net is lowered to the desired depth and raised at 0.5 meters per second.
Diatom cells range in size from 2 μm to 500 μm (0.5 mm).
Diarrhea, nausea or vomiting; skin, eye or throat irritation; and allergic reactions or breathing difficulties.
They provide a habitat for spawning, foraging, and refuge for a variety of fish.
Size range of 0.2 to 20 mm; examples include copepods, Medusae, Cladocera, Ostracoda, and Pteropoda.
Size range of 2 to 20 μm; includes small eukaryotic protists, small diatoms, and small flagellates.
Dinoflagellates have peridinin and xanthophyll photo-pigments, except for chlorophyll-a, C1, C2, and carotenoids, which give them various colors.
