How are phytoplankton grouped?

How are phytoplankton grouped?

Plankton can be divided broadly into three groups – phytoplankton (photosynthetic organisms), zooplankton (animals) and bacterioplankton (bacteria).

Is plankton a fungi?

Plankton are microscopic plants and small animals that live in the surface waters of oceans, lakes, and rivers and drift with the currents. They include bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, invertebrates, and some vertebrates.

Is plankton a type of algae?

Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae. Most phytoplankton are buoyant and float in the upper part of the ocean, where sunlight penetrates the water. Phytoplankton also require inorganic nutrients such as nitrates, phosphates, and sulfur which they convert into proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Is plankton an animal mineral or vegetable?

Plankton are microscopic organisms that play an important role in the marine ecosystem. They are food for shelled animals and fish. Plankton refers to both plant- and animal-like beings that float along the sea’s tides and currents.

How do you classify zooplankton?

There are two categories used to classify zooplankton by their stage of development: meroplankton and holoplankton. Meroplankton are actually larvae that eventually change into worms, mollusks, crustaceans, coral, echinoderms, fishes, or insects.

Can an organism be both a plankton and an animal?

Many microscopic so-called plants (phytoplankton) can also eat like animals and many microscopic so-called animals (microzooplankton) can also photosynthesize like plants! These organisms acting like both plants and animals are called mixotrophs because they mix (combine) different ways of getting nutrition.

Is plankton a phylum?

The term plankton is a collective name for all such organisms—including certain algae, bacteria, protozoans, crustaceans, mollusks, and coelenterates, as well as representatives from almost every other phylum of animals.

Is plankton a fish?

Plankton are usually microscopic, often less than one inch in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish. Zooplankton include microscopic animals (krill, sea snails, pelagic worms, etc.), the young of larger invertebrates and fish, and weak swimmers like jellyfish.

Are plankton considered animals?

There are two main types of plankton: phytoplankton, which are plants, and zooplankton, which are animals.

Is plankton an animal Spongebob?

Did you know that the character Plankton from Spongebob is based on a real planktonic animal – the Copepod (shown above)? There are even specific group of copepods with one eye, just like Plankton, called Cyclops! There are two main types of plankton and most of them are microscopic.

Is zooplankton a herbivore?

Animal plankton are called zooplankton. Zooplankton may be herbivores or plant-eaters (eat phytoplankton), carnivores or meat eaters (eat other zooplankton) or omnivores, which eat both plants and animals (eat phytoplankton and zooplankton).

Is krill a zooplankton?

Krill are amongst the largest and most ecologically important zooplankton and they feed on phytoplankton.

Is plankton considered an animal or a plant?

Plankton refers to both plant- and animal-like beings that float along the sea’s tides and currents. Their name is derived from the Greek word, “planktos,” meaning “drifter” or “wanderer.” There are two main types of plankton: phytoplankton (plant-like beings) and zooplankton (weak swimming animal-like beings).

Is Plankton a carnivore?

Animal plankton are called zooplankton . Zooplankton can move on their own, but their movement is overpowered by currents. Zooplankton may be herbivores or plant-eaters (eat phytoplankton ), carnivores or meat eaters (eat other zooplankton) or omnivores, which eat both plants and animals (eat phytoplankton and zooplankton).

Which are two types of animals eat plankton?

tunicates (blob-like filter feeders that are actually primitive chordates) and other small creatures. Whales consume vast amounts of plankton. At the highest level, rare large animals such as whales occasionally pass through this ecosystem and eat whatever organisms they can find.

Is a plankton eating fish a carnivore?

Jellyfish are opportunistic carnivores that will eat almost anything they come across. Smaller jellyfish consume plankton, larger ones eat fish eggs, crustaceans and snails, and the very largest jellyfish can catch and eat whole fish. Jellyfish can also be cannibalistic.