Kingsford, M. J., and Mckinnon, A. D. (2019) Plankton. In: Hutchings, Pat, Kingsford, Michael, and Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove, (eds.) Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment and Management. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, VIC, Australia, pp. 191-206.

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Abstract

[Extract:] The term ‘plankton’, derived from the Greek ‘planktos’ = ‘drifting’, refers to the diverse communities of small organisms with apparently limited powers of locomotion relative to the water bodies in which they are found. Plankton is typically divided into phytoplankton (the single-cell ‘plants of the sea’; Fig. 16.1) and zooplankton (Fig. 16.2). Although most planktonic organisms are too small to observe in detail without a microscope, neither ‘small’ nor ‘limited locomotion’ are strictly true: some gelatinous plankton such as siphonophores and pyrosomes are extremely large, and indeed colonies of the siphonophore Praya sp. can grow up to 40 m in length, making it the longest, if not the bulkiest, organism in the sea.

Item ID:	62429
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	9780367174286
Copyright Information:	© Australian Coral Reef Society 2019
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2020 02:59
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100%
SEO Codes:	96 ENVIRONMENT > 9608 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity > 960802 Coastal and Estuarine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity @ 100%
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