Tiny organisms that drift in water bodies and cannot swim against currents. This group includes both microscopic plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) that form the foundation of aquatic food webs.
From Greek 'planktos' meaning wandering or drifting, coined by German marine biologist Victor Hensen in 1887. The term emphasizes these organisms' defining characteristic - their inability to control their horizontal movement in water.
Plankton may be tiny, but they rule the oceans! These microscopic drifters produce more than half of the world's oxygen - every second breath you take comes from plankton photosynthesis. A single drop of seawater can contain millions of plankton, and their massive populations support everything from tiny fish to enormous blue whales in the marine food web.
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