Plankton Survey

Phytoplankton

Foraminifera

Arthropods

Annelids

Veliger

Fish Larva

Plankton are essentially drifters, meaning their powers of locomotion are not strong enough to move against water currents.  In others words, they are at the mercy of currents. 

Plankton are divided into two groups, phytoplankton and zooplankton.  Phytoplankton are those drifters that possess chlorophyll and are capable of producing their own food.  

The zooplankton are organisms that are incapable of their own food production and must feed on other organisms for food.  The zooplankton includes those members that spend their entire lives in the water column (called holoplankton) and those that spend only a portion of their lives in the water column (called meroplankton).  Most of the meroplankton are larvae.  Larvae are morphologically distinct stages in an organisms life cycle. 

Plankton are collected by a variety of methods, including towing plankton nets behind boats or using pumps to filter known volumes of water through nets.

Harpacticoid Copepod