Basics
All marine organisms that cannot swim against currents
What is plankton?
The source of energy for phytoplankton photosynthesis
What is the sun?
Organisms that remain planktonic throughout their life cycle
What is holoplankton?
The colouration patterns use to prey to conceal from predators
What is camouflage?
All the interconnected and interacting food chains in an ecosystem
What is a food web?
Marine animals that cannot swim against currents
What are zooplankton?
The gas that phytoplankton produce during photosynthesis?
What is meroplankton?
The production of light by some marine organisms
What is bioluminescence?
The base of the marine food web
What is phytoplankton?
Marine plants that drift with the currents
The gas that phytoplankton consume during photosynthesis?
What is carbon dioxide?
Copepods, jellyfish, and krill are this type of plankton
What is holoplankton?
The appendages used by phytoplankton to avoid sinking out of sunlit waters
What are spines?
Each step in a marine food web
What is a trophic level?
Marine bacteria that drift with currents
What are bacterioplankton?
What are nutrients?
Sea stars, crabs, and barnacles are this type of plankton
What is meroplankton?
The whip-like organ that allows single cell plankton to move in the water column
What is a flagella?
Killer whales, sharks, and humans are this trophic level
What is an apex predator?
Marine viruses that drift with the currents
What are virioplankton?
The event, typically in the spring, when increased sunlight mixed with increased nutrients brought from deep waters during winter storms create a large increase in the abundance of phytoplankton and zooplankton
What is a plankton bloom?
The process of changing from a planktonic lifestyle to a benthic (bottom-dwelling) lifestyle
What is settlement?
The migration of zooplankton from deep waters during the day to surface waters at night
What is diel vertical migration?
The process of breaking down dead plant and animal tissue by bacteria
What is decomposition?