Marine Biology Plankton

Zoo plankton

-Feed on phytoplankton
-Weak swimmers

Which includes:
1. Copepods
2.Krill
3.Phylum Cnidaria
4.Phylum Ctenphora
5.Salps
6.Larvaceans
7.Phylum Chaetognatha
8.Mollusks and Annelids

Copepods
-Phylum Arthropoda
-Subphylum Crustacea
-Exoskeleton that is molted
-Segmentation
-Jointed appendages
-One of most dominant groups of zooplankton
-Active filter feeders
-The head has a single central eye and two antennae.

Krill
-Phylum Arthropoda
-Subphylum Crustacea

-The largest krill species, the Antarctic Euphausia superb congregate in huge swarms near the surface of the ocean, attracting large carnivorous animals such as whales, seals, pelagic fish and sea birds

-Exoskeleton that is molted
-Segmentation
-Jointed appendages

Phylum Cnidaria
-Gelatinous zooplankton
-Capture food with cnidocytes
-Swim by contracting muscles in bell
-Carnivorous

Examples:
-Jelly fish, sea anemone, corals Phylum Ctenphora
-Gelatinous zooplankton
-Capture food with colloblasts (sticky cells)
-Swim with comb rows (rows of cilia)
-Some are luminescent
-Called comb jellies
-Mostly pelagic
-Predators

Salps
-Phylum Urochordata
-Animal zooplankton
-Filter feeders (funnels water)
-Can form long chains

Larvaceans
-Phylum Urochordata
-Animal zooplankton
-Makes a mucus house that it lives in
-Filter feeders
-Periodically abandons its house in which is casts off and then secretes another one
-House gets clogged full of food particles and feces and falls to the bottom as “snow”

Phylum Chaetognatha
-Animal zooplankton
-Arrow Worms
-Torpedo shaped
-4-10 cm
-1 or 2 pairs of lateral fins
-Swim with rapid contractions of longitudinal trunk muscles
-Use grasping spines to feed on other zooplankton

Annelids
-Phylum annelida
-Segmented worms
-Mostly benthic
-Predators
-Passive suspension feeders
-Deposit feeders
-Examples: polychaetes , leeches , oligochaetes

Mollusks
-Phylum Mollusca
-Some benthic and