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phytoplankton
[ fahy-tuh-plangk-tuhn ]
phytoplankton
/ ˌfaɪtəˈplæŋktən; ˌfaɪtəplæŋkˈtɒnɪk /
noun
- the photosynthesizing organisms in plankton, mainly unicellular algae and cyanobacteria Compare zooplankton
phytoplankton
/ fī′tō-plăngk′tən /
- Plankton consisting of free-floating algae, protists, and cyanobacteria. Phytoplankton form the beginning of the food chain for aquatic animals and fix large amounts of carbon, which would otherwise be released as carbon dioxide.
Derived Forms
- phytoplanktonic, adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of phytoplankton1
Example Sentences
Where there’s an active, healthy whale pump, you’ll have more phytoplankton, and phytoplankton is the basis for at least half of the oxygen on the planet.
One of the big questions to emerge from the study, Cassar adds, is just how much carbon these phytoplankton may have ultimately removed from the atmosphere as they bloomed.
Aerosols from the fires also traveled eastward through the lower atmosphere, ultimately reaching the Southern Ocean where they triggered blooms of phytoplankton in its iron-starved waters.
Researchers can then use a mathematical model to estimate the corresponding amount of phytoplankton there is.
They collected phytoplankton in the sea for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.
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