Discover the fascinating world of plankton, from phytoplankton to zooplankton, and their crucial role in the aquatic food chain and the fight against climate change.
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[...] The plankton Introduction The plankton is a grouping of living organisms in an aquatic environment (fresh or saltwater). This term comes from Greek and means 'errant' which should be understood here as 'drifting'. In fact, the plankton is carried by the current unlike the necton (such as fish, whales, etc . ) which is capable of moving (swimming) in the water. The plankton is generally composed of microscopic unicellular organisms. However, some planktons can be much larger (some jellyfish can be over 20 meters long) Origins of planktons Originally, plankton appeared in the oceans 3.5 billion years ago, at a time when the atmosphere was composed only of nitrogen and CO22. [...]
[...] Zooplankton, or animal plankton, refers to the plankton that feeds on phytoplankton or other zooplankton species. It can be made up of species that spend their entire lives as plankton or just the beginning of their cycle (mosquito larvae, scallop larvae, mussels Some species can be in both categories, such as certain dinoflagellates that can photosynthesize and possibly eat their neighbor. A final category of plankton has been created to include nanoplancton, that is, all organisms measuring less than 20 µm (very small cells, bacteria, viruses *Needs To develop, phytoplankton needs nutrient salts (nitrogen, phosphorus, iron ) and light. [...]
[...] Except for very rare exceptions, phytoplankton is always at the base of the food chain, also known as the food pyramid. This chain defines who eats whom, and it can be short: [ Diatom (phytoplankton) Copepod (zooplankton) Blue Whale (nekton) or long: [ Blue Algae (phytoplankton) Dinoflagellate (zooplankton) Calanus (zooplankton) Krill (zooplankton) Herring (nekton) Mackerel Tuna White Shark At each stage of the chain, it takes approximately 10 times more prey to feed the predator. For our second example, it takes approximately 1000 tons of blue algae to produce 1 kg of white shark. [...]
[...] In fact, currently, phytoplankton is still the source of two-thirds of the oxygen we breathe. In addition, it is also at the center of the fight against climate change because the photosynthesis carried out by phytoplankton 'absorbs' CO22. Thus, scientists have calculated that phytoplankton captures more than half of the CO22 what men produce every year. It is therefore a key element of our ecosystem. Types of plankton We differentiate two large categories of plankton, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton, or plant plankton, is to the aquatic environment what plants are to the terrestrial environment. [...]
