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The word zooplankton is derived from Ancient Greek: ζῷον, romanized: zôion, lit. 'animal'; and πλᾰγκτός, planktós, 'wanderer; drifter'. [4] Zooplankton is a categorization spanning a range of organism sizes including small protozoans and large metazoans.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 25 January 2025. Organisms living in water or air that are drifters on the current or wind This article is about the marine organisms. For other uses, see Plankton (disambiguation). Marine microplankton and mesoplankton Part of the contents of one dip of a hand net. The image contains diverse planktonic ...
Fish larvae are part of the zooplankton that eat smaller plankton, while fish eggs carry their own food supply. Both eggs and larvae are themselves eaten by larger animals. [2] [3] Fish can produce high numbers of eggs which are often released into the open water column. Fish eggs typically have a diameter of about 1 millimetre (0.039 in).
A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. [1] [2] Planktivorous organisms encompass a range of some of the planet's smallest to largest multicellular animals in both the present day and in the past billion years; basking sharks and copepods are just two examples of giant and microscopic organisms that feed upon plankton.
Their swimming technique also helps them to capture prey; when their bell expands it sucks in water which brings more potential prey within reach of the tentacles. [79] A few species such as Aglaura hemistoma are omnivorous, feeding on microplankton which is a mixture of zooplankton and phytoplankton (microscopic plants) such as dinoflagellates ...
A boa constrictor in the U.K. gave birth to 14 babies — without a mate. The process is called parthenogenesis, from the Greek words for “virgin” and “birth.”
Marine environments can have inversions in their biomass pyramids. In particular, the biomass of consumers (copepods, krill, shrimp, forage fish) is generally larger than the biomass of primary producers. Because of this inversion, it is the zooplankton that make up most of the marine animal biomass.
The global biomass of gelatinous zooplankton (sometimes referred to as jelly‐C) within the upper 200 m of the ocean amounts to 0.038 Pg C. [21] Calculations for mesozooplankton (200 μm to 2 cm) suggest about 0.20 Pg C. [22] The short life span of most gelatinous zooplankton, from weeks up to 2 to 12 months, [23] [24] suggests biomass ...