CLASSIFICATION BY

DEPTH DISTRIBUTION OF
PHYTOPLANKTON AND
ZOOPLANKTON
 CLASSIFICATION BY DEPTH DISTRIBUTION
OF PHYTOPLANKTON
• Phytoplankton are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton
 community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from
the Greek words (phyton), meaning 'plant', and (planktos), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter
• Phytoplankton obtain their energy through photosynthesis, as do trees and other plants
on land. This means phytoplankton must have light from the sun, so they live in the
well-lit surface layers (euphotic zone) of oceans and lakes.
 CLASSIFICATION BY DEPTH DISTRIBUTION
OF PHYTOPLANKTON
• Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, are similar to terrestrial plants in that
they contain chlorophyll and require sunlight in order to live and grow. Most
phytoplankton are buoyant and float in the upper part of the ocean, where
sunlight penetrates the water. Phytoplankton also require inorganic nutrients such
as nitrates, phosphates, and sulfur which they convert into proteins, fats, and
carbohydrates.
 THE TWO MAIN CLASSES OF
PHYTOPLANKTON

• Dinoflagellates and Diatoms.

• Dinoflagellates use a whip-like tail, or flagella, to move through the water and
their bodies are covered with complex shells.

• Phytoplankton are monophyletic group of primarily unicellular organisms united

by a suite of unique characteristics, including flagellar insertion, pigmentation, 
organelles, and features of the nucleus, that distinguish them from other groups.
• The name dinoflagellate comes from dinos (Greek) “whirling,” which describes
their distinctive swimming pattern, and flagellum (Latin) “a whip.” Freshwater
dinoflagellates, including one of the most identified unicells in all the planton.

• Freshwater dinoflagellates are diverse in shape and growth habit, occurring

mainly as single cells either in the plankton or attached to substrates such as
algal filaments and as nonmotile resting stages in the sediments.
• Dinoflagellates range in size from about 5 to 2,000 micrometres (0.0002 to 0.08 inch).
Most are microscopic, but some form visible colonies. Nutrition among dinoflagellates
is autotrophic, heterotrophic, or mixed; some species are parasitic or commensal. About
one-half of the species are photosynthetic; even among those, however, many are also
predatory. 
DIATOMS

• Are a type of plankton called phytoplankton, the most common of the plankton types.
Diatoms also grow attached to benthic substrates, floating debris, and on macrophytes.
They comprise an integral component of the periphyton community.
• Diatoms are able to photosynthesize, they convert dissolved carbon dioxide in the
water into oxygen. They are a primary food source for higher organisms in the food
chain, such as invertebrates and small fish. Diatoms can also play important roles in the
energy and nutrient cycles of water resources.
• Diatoms are algae that live in houses made of glass. They are the only organism on the
planet with cell walls composed of transparent, opaline silica. Diatom cell walls are
ornamented by intricate and striking patterns of silica.

• The diatom is unicellular, photosynthetic, free-moving, has a specialized frustule wall

made of silica, has food reserves, has many different shapes, has few colors due to
chlorophyll, a two-layered outer shell known as the thecae, and have both sexual and
asexual reproductive cycles
 TWO TYPE OF DIATOMS

• The centric diatoms and the pennate diatoms

• Centric diatoms appear round, discoid, or cylindrical depending on the relative

length of their axes. In "valve view" they have radial or near-radial symmetry, while a
few have developed some bilaterality (e.g. Auliscus and Biddulphia). In "girdle view"
they are "boxy" similar to pennate diatoms.
• Centric diatoms are radially symmetric. They are composed of upper and lower valves
– epitheca and hypotheca – each consisting of a valve and a girdle band that can easily
slide underneath each other and expand to increase cell content over the diatoms
progression.
PENNATE DIATOMS

• Pennate diatoms are bipolar, elongate and bilaterally symmetric, although quite a few
taxa are bilaterally asymmetric. Pennate diatoms make up a heterogeneous group that
includes araphid, monoraphid, and biraphid taxa.
• In older taxonomic systems, pennate diatoms are contrasted with the centric diatoms.
These two groups are not natural, evolutionary lineages but serve as general descriptions
of morphology.
• In Latin, pennate means feathered, chosen perhaps because a valve resembles the vane
of a feather and striae resemble the barbs of a vane.
• Pennate diatoms are bipolar, elongate and bilaterally symmetric, although
quite a few taxa are bilaterally asymmetric. Pennate diatoms make up a
heterogeneous group that includes araphid, monoraphid, and biraphid taxa. In
older taxonomic systems, pennate diatoms are contrasted with the centric
diatoms.
 CLASSIFICATION BY DEPTH DISTRIBUTION
OF ZOOPLANKTON
• Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the
Greek word for animal). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively
against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by currents in the ocean, or by
currents in seas, lakes or rivers.

• Zooplankton can also act as a disease reservoir. Crustacean zooplankton have been

found to house the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera, by allowing the
cholera vibrios to attach to their chitinous exoskeletons. This symbiotic relationship
enhances the bacterium's ability to survive in an aquatic environment, as the exoskeleton
provides the bacterium with carbon and nitrogen
• Body size has been defined as a "master trait" for plankton as it is a morphological
 characteristic shared by organisms across taxonomy that characterises the functions
performed by organisms in ecosystems.
• It has a paramount effect on growth, reproduction, feeding strategies and mortality. One
of the oldest manifestations of the biogeography of traits was proposed over 170 years
ago, namely Bergmann's rule, in which field observations showed that larger species
tend to be found at higher, colder latitudes.
• In the oceans, size is critical in determining trophic links in planktonic ecosystems and is
thus a critical factor in regulating the efficiency of the biological carbon pump. Body
size is sensitive to changes in temperature due to the thermal dependence of
physiological processes.
 TWO TYPE OF ZOOPLANKTON

• There are two major types of zooplankton: those that spend their entire lives as
part of the plankton (called Holoplankton) and those that only spend a
larval or reproductive stage as part of the plankton (called Meroplankton).
 HOLOPLANKTON

• Holoplankton are organisms that are planktic (they live in the water column and cannot
swim against a current) for their entire life cycle. Holoplankton can be contrasted with
meroplankton, which are planktic organisms that spend part of their life cycle in the benthic
zone.

• Holoplankton spend their entire lives as part of the plankton. This group includes krill,
copepods, various pelagic (free swimming) sea snails and slugs, salps, jellyfish and a small
number of the marine worms. To most people jellyfish are probably the most visible and best
known of this group
 MEROPLANKTON

• Meroplankton are a wide variety of aquatic organisms which have both planktonic and benthic

 stages in their life cycles. Much of the meroplankton consists of larval stages of larger
organism. Meroplankton can be contrasted with holoplankton, which are planktonic organisms
that stay in the pelagic zone as plankton throughout their entire life cycle.
• After a period of time in the plankton, many meroplankton graduate to the nekton or adopt a 
benthic (often sessile) lifestyle on the seafloor. The larval stages of benthic invertebrates make
up a significant proportion of planktonic communities.
• Not all meroplankton are larvae or juvenile stages of larger organisms. Many dinoflagellates are
meroplanktonic, undergoing a seasonal cycle of encystment and dormancy in the benthic zone
followed by excystment and reproduction in the pelagic zone before returning to the benthic
zone once more.

• There also exist meroplanktonic diatoms; these have a seasonal resting phase below the 
photic zone and can be found commonly amongst the benthos of lakes and coastal zones.

• Meroplankton species composition depends on spatial distribution and reproductive habits of

adults in a given area. Biotic and abiotic factors such as tidal and lunar cycles and availability of
food determine adult spawning schedules, in turn, determining subsequent meroplankton
populations.
• Behavioural factors, such as predator avoidance are also important. Freshwater inputs play a key
role in meroplankton species composition in estuarine environments. Effects of tides contribute
greatly to meroplankton species distribution.

• The distribution of meroplankton is also highly seasonal. Many meroplankton have short
residence times in the pelagic zone which follow seasonal reproduction patterns. The timing of
meroplankton population rises can be used as a proxy to estimate the timing of seasonal
reproduction of the species.
 CLASSIFICATION BY LENGTH PLANKTONIC
OF LIFE
• Phytoplankton
• When size is used as a criterion, plankton can be subdivided into macroplankton, microplankton,
and nannoplankton, though no sharp lines can be drawn between these categories.
• Macroplankton can be collected with a coarse net, and morphological details of individual
organisms are easily discernible. These forms, 1 mm (0.04 inch) or more in length, ordinarily do
not include phytoplankton.
• Microplankton (also called net plankton) is composed of organisms between 0.05 and 1 mm
(0.002 and 0.04 inch) in size and is a mixture of phytoplankton and zooplankton. The lower limit
of its size range is fixed by the aperture of the finest cloth used for plankton nets.
• Zooplankton
• Among the protozoans, planktonic foraminiferans and radiolarians are so abundant and
widespread that their skeletons constitute the bulk of bottom sediments over wide ocean areas.
They are absent in fresh water. The ciliate protozoans are represented mainly by the tintinnids,
which are between 20 and 640 microns (1 micron = 10−6 metre; 0.0008 and 0.025 inch) in size
and sometimes occur in vast numbers.
• Among the planktonic coelenterates are the beautiful siphonophores (e.g., Physalia, the
Portuguese man-of-war) and the jellyfishes. Planktonic ctenophores, called comb jellies, or sea
walnuts, are also common.
•  Freshwater rotifers may be present in plankton in vast numbers during the warmer seasons.
• A group of organisms that can be found at all latitudes, both in surface water and at great depths,
are the marine arrowworms (e.g., Sagitta), important planktonic predators. Oysters, mussels,
other marine bivalves, and snails begin life as planktonic larvae. The wing snails (Pteropoda)
spend their entire life cycles as plankton.