News tagged with plankton
Giant kraken lair discovered
Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 10, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (40) |
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150 years later, Darwin vindicated... by jellyfish: Researchers link tiny sea creatures to large-scale ocean mixing
(PhysOrg.com) -- Creatures large and small may play an important role in the stirring of ocean waters, according to a study released Wednesday that confirms a theory advanced by Charles Darwin.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 29, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (22) |
10
Oceanic 'garbage patch' not nearly as big as portrayed in media: researchers
There is a lot of plastic trash floating in the Pacific Ocean, but claims that the "Great Garbage Patch" between California and Japan is twice the size of Texas are grossly exaggerated, according to an analysis ...
Jan 04, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (21) |
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Scientists warn of unseen deepwater oil disaster
(AP) -- Independent scientists and government officials say there's a disaster we can't see in the Gulf of Mexico's mysterious depths, the ruin of a world inhabited by enormous sperm whales and tiny, invisible ...
May 31, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (17) |
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Disappearing act of world's second largest fish explained
Researchers have discovered where basking sharks - the world's second largest fish - hide out for half of every year, according to a report published today in Current Biology. The discovery revises scient ...
May 07, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (15) |
0
Jellyfish replacing fish in over-exploited areas
(PhysOrg.com) -- Over-fished commercial stocks of plankton-eating fish have been replaced in several locations by jellyfish species. This appears to be something of a paradox because fish move quickly and ...
Sep 16, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (14) |
10
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Dynasty of plankton-eating giants from Age of Dinosaurs revealed in new study
(PhysOrg.com) -- Giant plankton-eating fish filled the prehistoric seas for more than 100 million years before they were wiped out in the same event that killed off the dinosaurs, new fossil evidence claims.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 18, 2010 |
5 / 5 (13) |
0
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Decline of carbon-dioxide-gobbling plankton coincided with ancient global cooling
(PhysOrg.com) -- The evolutionary history of diatoms -- abundant oceanic plankton that remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year -- needs to be rewritten, according to a new Cornell ...
Biology /
Jan 08, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (13) |
1
Red Sea coral seen to feed on jellyfish
(PhysOrg.com) -- Corals depends on the products of photosynthetic algae for most of their food, but they also eat tiny plankton. Now, for the first time, there is evidence of a coral eating jellyfish.
Nov 17, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
2
Massive volcanoes, meteorite impacts delivered one-two death punch to dinosaurs: study
(PhysOrg.com) -- A cosmic one-two punch of colossal volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes likely caused the mass-extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period that is famous for killing the dinosaurs ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 17, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
11
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Global change puts plankton under threat
Changes in the ocean’s chemistry, as a result of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, threaten marine plankton to a greater extent than previously thought, according to new research.
May 04, 2012 |
3.8 / 5 (13) |
49
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'250 billion' plastic fragments in Mediterranean
Some 250 billion microscopic pieces of plastic are floating in the Mediterranean, creating a biological hazard that reverberates up the food chain, according to research supported by green campaigners.
Dec 30, 2010 |
4 / 5 (12) |
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World's largest, most complex marine virus is major player in ocean ecosystems: research
UBC researchers have identified the world's largest marine virus--an unusually complex 'mimi-like virus' that infects an ecologically important and widespread planktonic predator.
Oct 25, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (10) |
0
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Ocean geo-engineering produces toxic blooms of plankton
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research led by The University of Western Ontario warns of the potential for ecological harm caused by the fertilization of oceanic waters with the trace element iron. This fertilization ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 15, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (10) |
9
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Fish guts explain marine carbon cycle mystery
Research published today reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (9) |
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Plankton
Plankton (singular plankter) are any drifting organisms (animals, plants, archaea, or bacteria) that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification. They provide a crucial source of food to larger, more familiar aquatic organisms such as fish and whales.
Though many planktic (or planktonic—see section on Terminology) species are microscopic in size, plankton includes organisms covering a wide range of sizes, including large organisms such as jellyfish.
For more information about Plankton, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
