Tiny floating or weakly swimming animals that drift in water bodies and form a crucial part of aquatic food webs. They include small crustaceans, jellyfish larvae, and other microscopic organisms.
From Greek 'zoon' meaning 'animal' and 'planktos' meaning 'wandering' or 'drifting'. The term was coined in the late 19th century to distinguish animal plankton from plant plankton.
Zooplankton perform the largest migration on Earth every single day, traveling hundreds of meters up and down in the water column! This vertical migration involves more biomass than any other movement of animals on the planet.
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