Marine plankton include bacteria, archaea, algae, protozoa, microscopic fungi, [4] and drifting or floating animals that inhabit the saltwater of oceans and the brackish waters of estuaries. Freshwater plankton are similar to marine plankton, but are found in lakes and rivers.

Jan 9, 2025 · Plankton, marine and freshwater organisms that, because they are nonmotile or too small or weak to swim against the current, exist in a drifting state. Plankton is the productive base of both marine and freshwater ecosystems, providing food for …

Plankton are marine drifters — organisms carried along by tides and currents. Phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea, shown in natural color from NASA's Aqua satellite on July 10, 2014. The solid white area in the top right corner is cloud cover. Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory.

What is plankton? Plankton are a collection of tiny organisms that live at and beneath the surface of lakes, rivers, ponds, and oceans across the planet.

Mar 29, 2023 · Plankton is the collection of organisms that drift with tides and currents. Two important groups are phytoplankton (plant-like) and zooplankton (animal-life), but plankton include species from all the kingdoms of life, plus viruses.

Oct 19, 2023 · There are two main types of plankton: phytoplankton, which are plants, and zooplankton, which are animals. Zoo plankton and other small marine creatures eat phyto …

Jan 30, 2025 · Plankton are tiny organisms that drift in water bodies. They are crucial for aquatic ecosystems. Plankton include both plants and animals, though they are mostly microscopic. Despite their size, they play a huge role in the food chain. They serve as food for many marine creatures, from small fish to large whales. They also help in producing oxygen through photosynthesis. Understanding plankton ...

Nov 27, 2024 · These microbes thrive on nutrients in seawater and are often photosynthetic. The plankton include a wide variety of organisms such as algae, bacteria, protozoans, the larvae of some animals, and crustaceans. A large proportion of the plankton are protists —i.e., eukaryotic, predominantly single-celled organisms.

Plankton are fundamental to the marine ecosystem, serving as the base of the food chain and contributing to global oxygen production. Plankton species vary immensely in size and type, including both phytoplankton and zooplankton, which support diverse marine life.

Plankton is a diverse group of typically microscopic, aquatic organisms suspended in the water column and rely on water currents to move. They are unable to actively swim against the water flow due to their size and lack of locomotion.