Posts Tagged ‘phytoplankton’

This section of Ocean Life - Plankton website is dedicated to marine phytoplankton.

What is phytoplankton?

Phytoplankton is plant plankton. Plankton can be loosely classified into phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton are plants plankton and zooplankton are animal plankton.

Most phytoplankton are microscopic

Phytoplankton or plants plankton are nearly all microscopic, therefore most phytoplankton are invisible to the naked eye.

When a phytoplankton bloom occurs, the sheer numbers of minute phytoplankton cells make the ocean look very colorful. In the open sea, phytoplankton is similar to the grass in fields and pastures on land. Phytoplankton or plants planktonand are sometimes referred to as the 'grass of the sea'.

Number of Phytoplankton

It is estimated that each year two million million (a thousand US billion) tons of phytoplankton are produced in the world's oceans.

• Diatoms