picoplankton
Sign in to saveupright=1.3|thumb|Photosynthetic picoplankton off the Marquesas Islands observed by [[epifluorescence microscopy (blue exciting light). Orange fluorescing dots correspond to Synechococcus cyanobacteria, red fluorescing dots to picoeukaryotes.]]
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Classification
- Role in ecosystems
- Oceanic picoplankton
- Measurement
- See also
- References
upright=1.3|thumb|Photosynthetic picoplankton off the Marquesas Islands observed by [[epifluorescence microscopy (blue exciting light). Orange fluorescing dots correspond to Synechococcus cyanobacteria, red fluorescing dots to picoeukaryotes.]]
Picoplankton is the fraction of plankton composed by cells between 0.2 and 2 μm that can be either prokaryotic and eukaryotic phototrophs and heterotrophs: photosynthetic heterotrophic They are prevalent amongst microbial plankton communities of both freshwater and marine ecosystems. They have an important role in making up a significant portion of the total biomass of phytoplankton communities.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “picoplankton” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.