plankton

—planktonic /plangk ton"ik/, adj.

/plangk"teuhn/, n.

the aggregate of passively floating, drifting, or somewhat motile organisms occurring in a body of water, primarily comprising microscopic algae and protozoa.

[1890-95; < G, special use of neut. of Gk planktós drifting, equiv. to plang-, var. s. of plázesthai to drift, roam, wander + -tos verbid suffix]

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Marine and freshwater organisms that, because they are unable to move or are too small or too weak to swim against water currents, exist in a drifting, floating state.

Plankton is the productive base of both marine and freshwater ecosystems, providing food for larger animals and indirectly for humans, whose fisheries depend on plankton. As a human resource, plankton has only begun to be developed and used. The plantlike community of plankton is called phytoplankton, and the animal-like community is called zooplankton, but many planktonic organisms are better described as protists. Most phytoplankton serves as food for zooplankton, but some of it is carried below the light zone. Zooplankton is used directly as food by fish (including herring) or mammals (including whales), but several links on the food chain usually have been passed before plankton is available for human consumption.

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▪ marine biology

  marine and freshwater organisms, which, because they are nonmotile or because they are too small or too weak to swim against the current, exist in a drifting, floating state. The term plankton is a collective name for all such organisms and includes certain algae, bacteria, protozoans, crustaceans, mollusks, and coelenterates, as well as representatives from almost every other phylum of animals. Plankton is distinguished from nekton, which is composed of strong-swimming animals, and from benthos, which include sessile, creeping, and burrowing organisms on the seafloor. Large floating seaweeds (for example, Sargassum, which constitutes the Sargasso Sea) and various related multicellular algae are not considered plankton but pleuston. Organisms resting or swimming on the surface film of the water are called neuston (e.g., the alga Ochromonas).

      Plankton is the productive base of both marine and freshwater ecosystems, providing food for larger animals and indirectly for humans, whose fisheries depend upon plankton. As a human resource, plankton has only begun to be developed and exploited. It may in time be the chief food supply of the world, in view of its high biological productivity and wide extent. It has been demonstrated on several occasions that large-scale cultures of algae are technically feasible. The unicellular green alga Chorella has been used particularly in this connection. Through ample culture conditions, production is directed toward protein content greater than 50 percent. Although this protein has a suitable balance of essential amino acids, its low degree of digestibility prevents practical use. Phytoplankton may become increasingly important in space travel as a source for food and for gas exchange. The carbon dioxide released during respiration of spacecraft personnel would be transformed into organic substances by the algae, while the oxygen liberated during this process would support human respiration.

      The plantlike community of plankton is called phytoplankton, and the animal-like community is known as zooplankton. This convenient division is not without fault, for strictly speaking, many planktonic organisms are neither clearly plant nor animal but rather are better described as protists. When size is used as a criterion, plankton can be subdivided into macroplankton, microplankton, and nannoplankton, though no sharp lines can be drawn between these categories. Macroplankton can be collected with a coarse net, and morphological details of individual organisms are easily discernible. These forms, one millimetre or more in length, ordinarily do not include phytoplankton. Microplankton (also called net plankton) is composed of organisms between 0.05 and 1 mm in size and is a mixture of phytoplankton and zooplankton. The lower limit of its size range is fixed by the aperture of the finest cloth used for plankton nets. Nannoplankton (dwarf plankton) passes through all nets and consists of forms of a size less than 0.05 mm. Phytoplanktonic organisms dominate the nannoplankton.

 The chief components of marine phytoplankton are found within the algal groups and include diatoms (see phytoplankton video—>), dinoflagellates and coccolithophorids. Silicoflagellates, cryptomonads, and green algae are found in most plankton samples. Freshwater phytoplankton, usually rich in green algae, also includes diatoms, blue-green algae, and true flagellates.

 The zooplankton is divided into two groups. Temporary plankton consists of planktonic eggs and larvae of members of the benthos and nekton; permanent plankton (see zooplankton video—>) includes all animals that live their complete life cycles in a floating state. The temporary plankton, particularly abundant in coastal areas, is characteristically seasonal in occurrence, though variations in spawning time of different species ensure its presence in all seasons. Representatives from nearly every phylum of the animal kingdom are found in the permanent plankton. Among the protozoans, planktonic foraminiferans and radiolarians are so abundant and widespread that their skeletons constitute the bulk of bottom sediments over wide ocean areas. They are absent in fresh water. The ciliate protozoans are represented mainly by the tintinnids, which are between 20 and 640 microns in size and sometimes occur in vast numbers. Among the planktonic coelenterates are the beautiful siphonophores (e.g., Physalia, the Portuguese man-of-war) and the jellyfishes. Planktonic ctenophores, called comb jellies, or sea walnuts, are also common. Freshwater rotifers may be present in plankton in vast numbers during the warmer seasons. A group of organisms that can be found at all latitudes, both in surface water and at great depths, are the marine arrowworms (e.g., Sagitta), important planktonic predators. Oysters, mussels, other marine bivalves, and snails begin life as planktonic larvae. The wing snails (Pteropoda) spend their entire life cycles as plankton.

      Crustaceans (crustacean) are the most important members of the zooplankton. They are the marine counterparts of insects on land; on land, as in the sea, the arthropods are the most diverse and numerous of all animal phyla. The copepod Calanus finmarchicus is important as food for the herring, and the euphausiid Euphausia superba, commonly known as krill, is the main food source for blue and fin whales (whale) in the Antarctic Ocean. These whales, particularly blue and finback whales, migrate to waters where spawning of these crustaceans occurs; and the rapid growth of these large mammals, feeding entirely on plankton, is impressive.

      There is a pronounced tendency for zooplankton to perform diurnal vertical migrations in both lakes and the sea. This migratory behaviour varies with stages in the life cycle, seasons of the year, latitude, hydrographic structure, and meteorological conditions. Generally, the animals ascend toward the surface at sunset from daytime depths. At midnight, if there is no optical stimulus (e.g., moon, artificial light), some of the animals return to the daytime depths, then approach the surface once again just before dawn. As the sun rises, all descend to their daytime level.

       bacteria and fungi (fungus) found in water belong by definition to plankton, but because of special techniques required for sampling and identification, they usually are considered separately. These organisms are important in the transformation of dead organic materials to inorganic plant nutrients. Some of these marine and freshwater microorganisms (including blue-green algae) fix molecular nitrogen from water containing dissolved air, forming ammonia or related nutrients important for phytoplankton growth. Although little is known about the extent of nitrogen fixation, bacteria and fungi always are found in water samples. A peculiar situation exists in the Black Sea, where water below 130–180 m contains hydrogen sulfide and no oxygen. Under these conditions only bacteria are found.

      The productivity of an area is dependent upon the availability of nutrients and water-stability conditions. Currents that flow near continents are important to plankton production in an area. The California Current (a continuation of the Kuroshio Drift from Japan) causes an outland transport of water and combines with a compensating nutrient-rich current along the coast of California to make this area highly productive. The same situation exists along the west coast of southern Africa, which is influenced by the Benguela Current, and off the west coast of South America, influenced by the Peru Current.

      In the sea an adequate supply of nutrients, including carbon dioxide, enables phytoplankton and benthic algae to transform the light energy of the Sun into energy-rich chemical components through photosynthesis. The bottom-dwelling algae are responsible for about 2 percent of the primary production in the ocean; the remaining 98 percent is attributable to phytoplankton. Most of the phytoplankton serves as food for zooplankton, but some of it is carried below the light zone. After death, this phytoplankton undergoes chemical mineralization, bacterial breakdown, or transformation into sediments. Phytoplankton production usually is greatest from 5 to 10 m below the surface of the water. High light intensity and the lack of nutrient in the regions above a depth of 5 m may be the causes for suboptimal photosynthesis. Although bacteria are found at all depths, they are most abundant either immediately below great phytoplankton populations or just above the bottom.

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