Find the word definition

Crossword clues for phytoplankton

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
phytoplankton

1897, from phyto- + plankton.

Wiktionary
phytoplankton

n. plankton which obtain energy by photosynthesis

WordNet
phytoplankton

n. photosynthetic or plant constituent of plankton; mainly unicellular algae

Wikipedia
Phytoplankton

Phytoplankton are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν (phyton), meaning " plant", and πλαγκτός (planktos), meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye. However, when present in high enough numbers, some varieties may be noticeable as colored patches on the water surface due to the presence of chlorophyll within their cells and accessory pigments (such as phycobiliproteins or xanthophylls) in some species.

Usage examples of "phytoplankton".

It must have taken phytoplankton genes into itself, but you will know more about that than I.

American continent, and Maury is trying to collate falls in phytoplankton productivity across the Pacific with low-resolution pictures from European, Australian and Russian weather satellites and reports from cargo ships of sightings of strange dark patches in the Pacific Ocean.

The slicks have already destroyed about half the phytoplankton productivity in the Pacific.

Satellite surveys show changes in the photosynthetic pigments with which phytoplankton, microscopic algae that are the primary producers of most marine ecosystems, turn sunlight into chemical energy, yet there is an overall increase in biomass.

Normally, phytoplankton use energy derived from sunlight to fix carbon dioxide into organic compounds.

Ultimately, almost all of the carbon fixed by phytoplankton photosynthesis is recycled back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Everything is going into the growth of the slick, and as it displaces the normal phytoplankton population, it will remove the base of the ecological pyramid through which fixed carbon flows from the microscopic primary producers to zooplankton, fish, squid, whales, and, ultimately, man.

The Chinese took Martian genes and added them to terrestrial species of phytoplankton, that much seems certain.

It is thought that a reduction in release of methyl sulphide by phytoplankton is the cause of a serious drought along the Pacific seaboard of the American continent, and Maury is trying to collate falls in phytoplankton productivity across the Pacific with low-resolution pictures from European, Australian and Russian weather satellites and reports from cargo ships of sightings of strange dark patches in the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, marine biologists report massive falls in fish stocks in the Indian Ocean, almost certainly the result of displacement of phytoplankton by slicks, and there is tension between India, Bangladesh and Mozambique over disputed fishing grounds.

It had been five years since the tsunami had destroyed most of the state and filled the Pacific with the murky red cloud of rust that had killed the phytoplankton and destroyed all sea life from the west coast of the Americas to China.

It had begun with the poisoning of the Atlantic phytoplankton, the very beginning of the chain of nutrition for all marine life, by land effluents loaded with insecticides and herbicides.

I knew the penguins were starving when I went to Antarctica: the phytoplankton extinctions led to the extinction of krill the penguins fed on and there was nothing left for them to eat.

As the phytoplankton died, so did the sea animals which depend upon it for food, followed quickly by each higher level of the food chain.

Garner knew that several facilities around the world had been established to catalog and archive phytoplankton species in fact, he liberally borrowed from many of them in identifying his own samples.