Plankton

Nogle gange er planteplankton så talrige, at de kan ses fra satellitter. Billedet er over Danmark. Plankton ses især i Vesterhavet, Skagerrak og noget af Kattegat omkring Læsø.
Plankton set fra satellit. Billedet er fra det vestlige Frankrig og sydvest fra Storbritannien.
Plankton i Biscayabugten set fra satellit.

Plankton er en fællesbetegnelse for de oftest små, encellede organismermikroorganismer, der lever frit svævende i havet. Gruppen omfatter meget små organismer, men til gengæld er der helt ufattelige mængder af dem i havet. I en liter havvand findes mere end 10-20 millioner. Gruppen er derfor også det nederste led i havets fødekæde.

At være planktonisk betyder at drive med strømmen, i modsætning til nektonisk, der kan svømme mod strømmen (hvaler, fisk og blæksprutter). Portugisiske orlogsmænd er sensu stricto plankton.

Plankton bliver normalt inddelt i 2 grupper:

Planktonnets maskestørrelser

Kilder/referencer

  1. ^ Introduction to the Archaea Citat: "...However, archaeans are not restricted to extreme environments; new research is showing that archaeans are also quite abundant in the plankton of the open sea..."

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Phytoplankton.jpg
A large phytoplankton bloom fills Skagarrak, a gulf of the North Sea north of Denmark’s Jutland peninsula, and spills into the North Sea on the west and Kattegat on the east. Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that can form large blooms near the ocean’s surface. In satellite imagery, the blooms are visible as bright blue and green swirls in ocean water. This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 1, 2004. Skagarrak’s inverted “v” is bordered by Norway, top left; Sweden, top right; and Denmark, lower center. Airplane contrails streak over the North Sea west of Denmark, and a thin plume of smoke is rising from a fire, marked with a red dot, in Jutland.
Algal bloom 20040615.jpg
Coccolithophore bloom off Brittany, France. The chalky white exteriors of single-celled marine plants called coccolithophores are coloring the water of the Atlantic Ocean bright blue. Like other types of phytoplankton, coccolithophores are a source of food for marine organisms. Though coccoliths are small, they often form large, concentrated blooms that are visible from space. On June 15, 2004, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of a bloom off the coast of Brittany, France. The bloom had been developing for a few days before this image was taken.