What is the main difference between phytoplankton and zooplankton quizlet?
What is the main difference between phytoplankton and zooplankton? Phytoplankton produces food via photosynthesis whereas zooplankton must eat food.
What is the relationship between phytoplankton and zooplankton?
Strong relationships exist between phytoplankton and zooplankton. For instance, the main systematic groups of zooplankton include many taxa, which feed on phytoplankton. Selective grazing by zooplankton is an important factor affecting the structure of phytoplankton communities.
What is the difference between plankton and nekton quizlet?
What is the difference between plankton and nekton? Plankton includes all organisms algae, animals, and bacteria that drift with ocean currents while Nekton includes all animals capable of moving independently of the ocean currents, by swimming other means of propulsion. Living on or in the bottom of the ocean.
What is the role of phytoplankton in an aquatic ecosystem?
Phytoplankton are the tiny, plant-like producers of the plankton community. They include bacteria and algae that form the base of aquatic food webs. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton use sunlight, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and water to produce oxygen and nutrients for other organisms.
What are the differences and similarities between phytoplankton and zooplankton?
The most significant difference between zooplankton and phytoplankton is that zooplankton are protozoans and animals, whereas phytoplankton are photosynthetic organisms, including algae (protists), blue-green algae or cyanobacteria (bacteria), and organisms such as dinoflagellates, which do not fit neatly into a single …
What is the difference between plankton and nekton?
The Nekton and Plankton Communities. The nekton are swimmers able to navigate at will (e.g., Coleoptera, Hemiptera, some Ephemeroptera), whereas plankton are floating organisms whose horizontal movements are largely dependent on water currents.
What is the difference between plankton nekton and benthos?
What is the difference between Nekton Plankton and Benthos? Nekton live throughout the water column whereas plankton live closer to the water surface. Unlike nekton and planktons, benthos linked to the ocean floor. Unlike the planktons and benthos, nekton can propel themselves either by swimming or other means.
Why are there more zooplankton than phytoplankton?
Because phytoplankton depend on the sun for their food, they tend to live near the surface of the water where there is plenty of sun. Zooplankton, on the other hand, often remain in the deeper parts of the water where there is little sunlight and travel to the surface during the night to feed.
What is the role of zooplankton?
The zooplankton community is an important element of the aquatic food chain. These organisms serve as an intermediary species in the food chain, transferring energy from planktonic algae (primary producers) to the larger invertebrate predators and fish who in turn feed on them.
What is phytoplankton?
Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae. Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, are similar to terrestrial plants in that they contain chlorophyll and require sunlight in order to live and grow. Most phytoplankton are buoyant and float in the upper part of the ocean, where sunlight penetrates the water.