What is plankton? Detailed answer

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What is plankton? Detailed answer

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What is plankton?

The word "plankton" comes from the Greek word, which means "wandering", "going with the flow". Plankton is a floating living mass made up of billions of tiny living organisms. Some of these organisms, such as tiny green plants, always remain plankton. Others, such as fish, lobsters, make up the plankton while they are in the embryonic stage. Sometimes in the composition of plankton there are large jellyfish or such small creatures that cannot even be seen through a conventional microscope. But all the plankton can stay afloat and live together, drifting with the flow.

The smallest plankton organisms are single-celled plants, microscopic algae. One of the most numerous varieties of such algae is called diatoms, or flint. In two liters of water there can be up to a million of them. The animal life of plankton is quite interesting. One of its species is the pear-shaped copepod (copepod means "copepod"). The copepod swims very fast, making sharp, jerky movements with its tiny paws, as if rowing on oars. The largest copepod is less than 13 mm long.

Young molluscs of various species also make up the plankton. Among them are shrimp, crabs, lobsters and sea ducks (a type of crustacean) living in salt water, as well as lobsters and water fleas - inhabitants of fresh water. The larvae, or developing juveniles, of these mollusks are tiny, microscopic, and at this stage of development cannot move independently, and therefore drift along with other plankton.

Other mollusks, such as snails, mussels, behave in the same way. They are part of the plankton at the first stage of their development. Plankton may include insect eggs and the larvae of many fish. In fresh water, plankton often includes developing insects.

Flying flies, dragonflies, water beetles and many other insects lay their eggs in the water. When the larvae hatch from the nest, they live and feed on plankton plants. This is only part of what makes up plankton. You see how many animals and plants are included in it and how interesting it is to study them.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

How many types of fish live on the planet?

There were no people on earth when the first fish swam on the waters of the ocean. There were not even dinosaurs then, not to mention elephants or any other highly organized living creatures. The first vertebrate animal on earth was the fish. Fish, like all other creatures that have lived on Earth since time immemorial, have undergone many changes in the process of evolution.

Now in the world of different species of fish lives more than any other vertebrate animals. There are at least XNUMX varieties of fish living in all kinds of water bodies, from mountain streams and small ponds to the deep ocean.

Fish are divided into three main classes. The first is cartilaginous fish, such as shark, stingray and ray fish. Instead of a bony skeleton, they have a cartilaginous one, made of a strong and elastic substance. Often, instead of scales, their body is covered with keratinized skin.

The second type is bony fish, which include the largest number of fish living today. Fish of this type have a bony skeleton and are covered with scales.

The third group is lungfish, that is, fish that have both gills and lungs. All lungfish live in fresh water. Their fins are slightly limb-like, and they sometimes make their way onto land. A typical example is the "climbing perch" living in India. But most fish breathe with gills, which are constantly bathed in water passing through their mouths.

Fish have cold blood, but they have a nervous system and, like other animals, they can experience pain and other unpleasant sensations.

Fish have a very fine sense of touch, and they touch as well as taste with their scaled skin. For smell, however, they have special organs located in small nostrils on their heads. They also have internal organs of hearing, that is, located inside the body.

Some fish are true vagrants and do not have a fixed place of residence, but mostly live in small communities, just like land animals. Almost all fish are predators, that is, they feed on other fish or aquatic animals and insects.

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A well-chosen diet improves the performance of children 27.09.2016

Scientists from the University of Eastern Finland have found out how the quality of nutrition affects intelligence. It turned out that the Finnish, Baltic and Mediterranean diets have a positive effect on the ability of schoolchildren to perceive information.

For their experiment, the researchers selected 161 volunteers aged 6-8 years. All children were first grade students. For three years of study, scientists monitored the nutrition and academic performance of children. It turned out that schoolchildren who ate Finnish, Baltic and Mediterranean cuisine better absorbed textual information. The peculiarity of these diets is less sugar and a large amount of whole grains, fish, berries, fruits and vegetables.

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