### plant:

Phytoplankton
* absorb both across their cell walls
  - light, resulting in decreased light intensity with descending depth
* also form the base of aquatic food webs
  - live in the epipelagic zone
  - serve as a major source of oxygen and sink for carbon dioxid e
* are able to harness the sun's energy and make food.
* are also crucially dependent on minerals
  - the basis of the marine food web
  - an important aspect of a healthy body of water
  - autotrophs, so they make their own food and are producers
  - bacteria and algae that use to make food
  - classified into groups by the type of pigments they use to perform photosynthesis
  - especially useful as indicators of eutrophication
  - far more abundant, and collectively more massive, than fish or marine mammals
  - found drifting in the water column of the pelagic zone
  - free-floating, photosynthesising protists
  - heterotrophs which depend on autotrophs for nutrition
  - important to the world environment
  - like plants
  - made up of single-celled algae and cyanobacteria
  - mainly unicellular or single-celled plants known as algae
  - microalgae that form an essential component of the marine food chain
  - microorganisms that drift about in water
* are microscopic algae and bacteria that feed some fish and birds
  - floating algae, which form the base of the ocean food web
  - free swimming organisms which live in photosynthetic algae
  - marine plants
  - organisms that include plants, algae, and bacteria
  - plants that are free floating in the open water
* are microscopic plants that are the base of the food chain in most of the ocean
  - foundation of the marine food chain
  - drift freely with the ocean currents
* are microscopic plants that live in the ocean
  - the water like diatoms small, single-celled algae
  - waterplants that float in Antarctica's fresh waters
  - microscopic, photosynthetic, free-floating organisms in the ocean
  - organisms commonly found in oceans throughout the world
  - photosynthetic organisms which are suspended in the water column
  - planktonic algae such as diatoms and dinoflagellates
* are primary producers
  - producing autotrophs in the oceans
  - responsible for most of the photosynthesis that takes place in the oceans
  - smaIl, single-celled ocean plants, smaller than the size of a pinhead
  - small primary producers suspended in water
* are small, microscopic single-celled plants
* are the base of the food chain in the oceans
  - chain in the sea
  - web, using sunlight for photosynthesis
* are the basis of the marine food chain and a good indicator of environmental change
  - food chain and a significant factor in global climate
* are the first link in the food chain
  - food web, but an overabundance causes imbalances
  - ocean food chain
  - food source for numerous other organisms, especially the zooplankton
  - foundation of the oceanic food chain
  - key primary producers in the ocean
* are the main primary producers at the bottom of the marine food chain
* are the major producers in both microbial and metazoan food webs
  - of the sea
* are the microscopic plants that are the bottom of the food chain in the ocean
  - drift around in the water
  - producers of the river's ecosystem
* are the most abundant and widely distributed form of plant life on Earth
  - widespread producers in the marine environment
  - important primary producers in the ocean
  - photosynthetic members of the plankton community
  - photosynthetic plankton or the producers
* are the primary producers in the Antarctic marine food web
  - single celled plants upon which primary consumers such as small fish feed
  - very start of the food chain
* are tiny animals that feed on zooplankton
  - microscopic plants that serve as the basis for the aquatic food chain
  - plants which float in the water column
  - single-celled plants that require light to live and reproduce
* are tiny, microscopic plants that bait fish feed upon
* blanket the surface of the water and turn water brown or blue-green.
* can also be the harbingers of death or disease
  - grow explosively over a few days or weeks
* carry out photosynthesis and are the base of the food chain in the ocean.
* cause mass mortality in other ways.
* come in many different structures, but all except for cyanobacteria are algae
  - shapes and sizes
* concentrates along the boundaries of the eddies, tracing the motion of the water.
* contain chlorophyll and require sunlight to live and grow.
* create their own energy from sunlight.
* depend on light for photosynthesis and therefore are only found in surface waters
  - other substances to survive as well
* drifting about below the surface of the water still carry out photosynthesis.
* form the base of the food chain
  - basis of life in the world's oceans
  - foundation of aquatic food webs
* forms the major food source of zebra mussels in lakes.
* get their energy directly from the sun using photosynthesis, just like plants.
* grow or 'bloom' very quickly and in huge quantities.
* have a relatively short turnover time
  - an important role in the marine ecosystem
  - many different appearances
  - thousands of classifications
  - to stay in relatively shallow water to get enough light for photosynthesis
* imparts a green color to the water in a properly fertilized pond.
* is also the most widely eaten kind of plankton
  - another term scientists use for microalgae that float in the sea
  - composed of photosynthetic protists and bacteria
  - full of antioxidant nutrients and pigments
  - minute plant life and serves as food for minnows and other small fish in the pond
  - responsible for the fixation of approx
* is the base of several aquatic food webs
  - basis of the entire food chain in the oceans
  - biological indicator that monitors water quality
* is the main producer of the organic matter in production-phytoplanktonic reservoirs
  - source of food for zooplankton
  - minute plant life found in bodies of water
  - most important kind of plankton, because phytoplankton consists of producers
  - very important to marine life
  - near the ocean surface where there is light for photosynthesis
* make up the foundation of the oceanic food web.
* only is single-cell, also known as marine unicellular algae.
* play a key role in the ecosystems of oceans, seas and freshwater basins.
* play an even bigger role in aquatic systems than just as food for aquatic animals
  - important role in the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
* produce oxygen during photosynthesis.
* produces almost half the world's carbohydrates and oxygen.
* provide the majority of plant life upon which the Antarctic food chain depends.
* reproduce fast but are present only in small amounts at any one time.
* require a source of nitrogen that they can utilize after direct uptake.
* require sunlight and nutrients to grow
* serve as condensation nuclei for cloud formation.
* slow down and absorb carbon dioxide.
* take up carbon dioxide and give off oxygen in the process of photosynthesis
  - during the light hours for photosynthesis
  - dissolved carbon dioxide and fix it into organic carbon
* thrive in warmer temperatures, reproducing at amazing rates.
* thrives on certain nutrients produced by the decay of organic matter.
* typically grow in the upper regions of the water column
  - thrive at or near the sea surface where sunlight is most abundant
* use photosynthesis to convert inorganic carbon into protoplasm.
* usually float near the waters surface.
* utilize nitrogenous waste products as nutrient sources for growth.