Feature Creature Aug 09

Made by Serif

Welcome to the feature creature page. Here you will find short articles on different marine creatures. A new article will be featured each month.

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The Importance of

PLANKTON

You've heard the word 'plankton' but do you know what it is? Plankton is the collective term for billions of microscopic organisms that live either permanently or temporarily in the surface layers of the ocean. It can be broken down into two main parts - the 'phyto-plankton' made up of single-celled algae, and the 'zoo-plankton' made up of tiny animal life.

The phyto-plankton make their food directly from sunlight through the process of photosynthesis. They are responsible for producing approximately two thirds of the planet's oxygen! The herbivorous zoo-plankton feed directly on the algae, while the carnivorous zoo-plankton feed on other zoo-plankton.

So where do the tiny animals come from that make up the zoo-plankton? Some of them are species that are only found in the plankton layer and live there permanently, spending their entire life-cycles there, but many more are only temporary inhabitants. These are mainly the tiny larval forms of other creatures such as fish, molluscs, crabs, prawns, jellyfish, etc. These organisms spend only there juvenile stage as plankton before growing into their adult forms.

A typical mollusc in a rock pool may send out thousands of eggs at a time, but often less that 1% will grow to become an adult. The rest will be eaten while it is still in the planktonic stage by other, bigger life, such as fish. Many of our most important fishery species are plankton-eaters.

So, our rock pools are helping to feed the oceans! A very important aspect of them.

Written by Jeannie Lawson