Marine Phytoplankton Essay

Phytoplankton From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation, face Diatoms are one of the close common types of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are the autotrophic dowery of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words cpur?v (phyton), import plant, and TIXay??q (planktos), meaning wanderer or drifter. l Most phytoplankton are too smallish to be individually seen with the unaided eye.However, when present in high adequate numbers, they may appear as a green dis twineation of the wet due to the presence f chlorophyll within their cells (although the actual color may vary with the species of phytoplankton present due to varying levels of chlorophyll or the presence of accessory pigments such as phycobiliproteins, xanthophylls, etc. ). Contents hide * 1 Ecology * 2 Aquaculture * 3 Blooms * 4 See also * 5 References * 6 External links edit Ecology Phytoplankton are the foundation of the pelagic food chain.Of these, the best known are dinoflagellate genera suc h as noctiluca and Dinophysis, that obtain organic carbon by ingesting different organisms or detrital material. The condition phytoplankton encompasses all photoautotrophic microorganisms in quatic food webs. Phytoplankton serve as the base of the aquatic food web, providing an essential ecological function for all aquatic life. However, dissimilar terrestrial communities, where most autotrophs are plants, phytoplankton are a diverse group, incorporating protistan eukaryotes and both eubacterial and archaebacterial prokaryotes.There are about 5,000 species of marine phytoplankton. 8 There is doubt in how such diversity has evolved in an environment where competition for plainly a few resources would suggest limited potential for niche differentiation. 9 In terms of numbers, the most important groups of phytoplankton include the diatoms, cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, although many other groups of algae are represented. One group, the coccolithophorids, is responsible (in p art) for the release of significant amounts of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) into the atmosphere.DMS is converted to sulfate and these sulfate molecules act as cloud abridgement nuclei, increasing general cloud cover. In oligotrophic oceanic regions such as the Sargasso Sea or the South Pacific Gyre, phytoplankton is dominated by the small sized cells, alled picoplankton, mostly composed of cyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus) and picoeucaryotes such as Micromonas. edit Aquaculture Diagrams of some typical phytoplankton.Main article Algaculture Phytoplankton are a tonality food item in both aquaculture and mariculture. Both utilize phytoplankton for the cater of the animals being farmed. In mariculture, the phytoplankton is naturally occurring and is introduced into enclosures with the normal circulation of sea piddle. In aquaculture, phytoplankton must be obtained and introduced directly. The plankton can either be collected from a body of pissing or foodstock for the produ ction of rotifers10, which are in turn used to melt other organisms.Phytoplankton is also used to feed many varieties of aquacultured molluscs, including pearl oysters and teras clams. The production of phytoplankton under artificial conditions is itself a form of aquaculture. Phytoplankton is cultured for a variety of purposes, including foodstock for other aquacultured organisms10, a nutritional supplement for captive invertebrates in aquaria. Culture sizes range from small-scale laboratory cultures of ess than 1 L to several(prenominal) tens of thousands of liters for commercial aquaculture10.Regardless of the size of the culture, certain conditions must be provided for competent harvest-tide of plankton. The majority of cultured plankton is marine, and seawater of a specific gravity of 1. 010 to 1. 026 may be used as a culture medium. This water must be sterilized, usually by either high temperatures in an autoclave or by exposure to ultraviolet radiation, to prevent biolog ic contamination of the culture. Various fertilizers are added to the culture medium to facilitate the growth of plankton.A culture must be aerated or provoke in some way to keep plankton suspended, as well as to provide dissolved carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. In addition to constant aeration, most cultures are manually mixed or stirred on a regular basis. Light must be provided for the growth of phytoplankton. The colour temperature of shining should be around 6,500 K, but values from 4,000 K to upwards of 20,000 K have been used successfully. The duration of light exposure should be approximately 16 hours daily this is the most efficient artificial day length10