What are plankton?

The word "plankton" is an umbrella term for organisms that live their lives that throw themselves in the water and cannot move alone. The term comes from an ancient Greek word that means "floating" and these organisms truly float water formations of fresh and salty around the world. Plankton lives primarily in the sun -drenched zone of the ocean, although some species occur in much deeper water. They are very important for life on Earth because it serves as the bottom of the food chain. They nourish larger animals, which in turn consume even larger animals, and so on organisms like humans at the top of the food chain. Plankton is also responsible for the Earth's atmosphere, thanks to the efforts of billions of photosynthetic phytoplankton.

There are three free categories of plankton, although the foggy identities of some species make it difficult to categorize. Fytoplankton are those with characteristics of similar plants as diatoms. Photosynthesizing energy and sometimes found in large groups called Kvěyou. Many of them are unicellular and are very simple animals.

Zooplankton has properties similar to animals and can sometimes increase. For example, jellyfish are zooplankton because, although they are larger than many other plankton, they are also at the mercy of ocean streams. Most of them eat phytoplankton for energy and serve as a source of energy for larger animals in the ocean, such as whales. As organisms such as dinoflagetes show, some zooplankton are capable of limited movement, but are still unable to withstand water streams.

bacterioplankton is the third group. Like their counterparts on Earth, they consume waste products from other organisms. They can also photosynthesize for energy and some species such as those found hydrothermal openings are capable of chemosynthesis. They also eat zooplankton.

Once categorized, there are two other divisions of these organizationshim. The first is a group of holoplankton, organisms that remain plankton throughout their lives. The second is Meroplankton, larval forms of sea creatures such as molluscs, fish, crustaceans and many others. In their early stages, these larvae are carried water, usually helpless to move until they develop on older animals.

Although little plankton plays an important role in the planet's health. Like other organisms, they require the nutrients and a balanced environment in which they live. Their absence in the body of water indicates the environmental imbalance, as well as the disproportionate number of unusual plankton. For this reason, some scientists spend their entire lives by exploring and new species are constantly discovered and studied.