Plankton
Videos
Plankton are organisms that drift in water but are unable to actively propel themselves against currents. Marine plankton include drifting organisms that inhabit the saltwater of oceans and the bracki
Marine microplankton and mesoplankton Part of the contents of one dip of a hand net. The image contains diverse planktonic organisms, ranging from photosynthetic cyanobacteria and diatoms to many different types of zooplankton, including both holoplankton (permanent residents of the plankton like copepods) and meroplankton (temporary residents of the plankton like fish eggs and crab larvae). 100 μm is one tenth of a mm
The coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi (μm = thousandth of one mm)
Algae bloom of Emiliania huxleyi off the southern coast of England
Plankton species diversity Diverse assemblages of unicellular and multicellular organisms with different sizes, shapes, feeding strategies, ecological functions, life cycle characteristics, and environmental sensitivities. Courtesy of Christian Sardet/CNRS/Tara expeditions
Diatom
Videos
A diatom is any member of a large group comprising several genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion
Selections from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature), showing pennate (left) and centric (right) frustules.
Light microscopy of a living diatom. Numbered graduations are 10 micrometres apart
Chaetoceros willei Gran, 1897