KSA712 Final: Phytoplankton bloom Final Exam Notes
31 Jul 2018
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Half the (cid:449)orld"s pri(cid:373)ar(cid:455) produ(cid:272)tio(cid:374) o(cid:272)(cid:272)urs i(cid:374) (cid:373)ari(cid:374)e s(cid:455)ste(cid:373)s, (cid:373)ost of this consists of microscopic phytoplankton. Primary producers growth depends on the net difference gained from photosynthesis and the losses created from respiration, excretion, storage products and skeletal development. Water movement plays a crucial role to phytoplankton. Eddies and other oceanic current movements help shift phytoplankton vertically through the water column. Dom plays a vital role for plankton also as it allows them to passively uptake necessary nutrients from their external environment such as nucleotides, pyruvates and other amino acids. Plankton: weakly swimming/free floating organisms at the mercy of the prevailing water movement (not just microscopic), nekton are strong swimming counterparts. Holoplankton organisms spend whole of their life as plankton, eg. copepod. Meroplankton organisms spend part of their life as plankton, eg. fish fry. Tycoplankton organisms suspended temporarily in the water column, not strictly speaking plankton, eg. bit of sponge stirred into the water column.
