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Article: Plankton
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Plankton
Plankton are small aquatic organisms that live in both freshwater and marine environments. The word "plankton" is derived from the Greek word
planktos,
which means "drifting." In general, plankton have little or no means of locomotion and their distribution is determined largely by water currents and mixing. However, some plankton can swim through less turbulent waters using flagella and other
appendages
.
There are several broad categories of plankton.
Phytoplankton
are small plantlike plankton and are commonly referred to as algae. Phytoplankton are primary producers (they use energy from the sun to make
organic
food molecules). Bacterioplankton are very small (only ...