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
Algae
Videos
Algae are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms. It excludes the land plants. Such organisms range from microscopic unicellular microalgae to seaweeds, multicellular macroalgae
Plankton
…organisms from species across all the major biological kingdoms, ranging in size from the microscopic (such as bacteria, archaea, protozoa and microscopic algae and fungi) to larger organisms (such as jellyfish and ctenophores). This is because plankton are defined by their ecological niche and level of motility…
Marine algae growing on the sea bed in shallow waters
Freshwater microscopic unicellular and colonial algae
False-color scanning electron micrograph of the unicellular coccolithophore Gephyrocapsa oceanica
The kelp forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium: A three-dimensional, multicellular thallus