Planktonic organisms: general features, composition, suspension mechanism in water, settling
velocities and adaptive mechanisms
• The word ‘plankton’ has been derived from a Gr.
word ‘planktos’ means drifting. So, plankton are
those microscopic aquatic organisms whose
movement is mainly driven by water current,
wave, tide, etc. Although, some of them might
possess some kinds of locomotary organs but
those are not sufficiently strong to overcome the
water current.
• The word ‘Plankton’ was first coined by Victor
Hensen in 1887 to mean all the microscopic
organisms and non-living minute particles who
are drifted by wave, current and other means of
water movement
• In the modern time all such suspended particles
of water as mentioned by Victor Hensen has been
termed as ‘Seston’ which is divided into ‘bio-
seston’ (organismal) and ‘abio-seston or
tripton’ (non-organismal).
• So scientifically plankton are those microscopic or
sub-microscopic suspended organisms of water
who do not have any locomotion of their own or if
they would have any flagella or cilia attached to
them that is not sufficiently strong to overcome
the strength of water movement, current or wave
actions. It means the movement of plankton are
mainly regulated by the motion of water.
• In the present context, a classification hierarchy
of plankton might be useful to understand their
structure and different other features. So, a
classification of plankton depending on
• I. Quality, II. Size, III. Habitat, IV. Origin, V.
Content, and VI. Life-cycle pattern has been
proposed.
I. Quality, 2 types
(a) Phytoplankton
(i) True plankton (chlorophyll bearing)
(ii) Saproplankton (non-chlorophyllous)
(b) Zooplankton (animal plankton)
II. Size, 5 types
(a) Macroplankton, Oscillatoria >500 µm
(b) Microplankton or net plankton, Volvox, 50-500 µm
(c) Nannoplankton, Rhodomonas 10- ~50 µm
(d) Ultra-nannoplankton, Chlorella 0.5-10 µm
(e) Picoplankton, Synechococcus 0.2-2 µm
III. Habitat, 5 types
(a) Limnoplankton, plankton of lakes, Cryptomonas
(b) Rheoplankton, plankton of rivers, Aulacoseira granulata
(c) Heleoplankton, plankton of ponds, Scenedesmus
(d) Haliplankton, plankton of saline water, Chaetoceros
(e) Hypelmyroplankton, plankton of brackish water
Stephanodiscus
IV. Origin, 2 types
(a) Autogenetic, plankton originated in the same water
body, Stephanodiscus
(b) Allogenetic, plankton produced in a different habitat but
brought to another habitat Spirogyra
V. Content, 2 types
(a) Euplankton, true-plankton
(b) Pseudoplankton, part of a plankton mixed in true
plankton
VI. Life cycle, 3 types
(a) Holoplankton, completes their life cycle under floating
condition, Asterionella formosa
(b) Meroplankton, only a part of their life cycle is floating,
Melosira italica
(c) Tychoplankton, first remain attached, later on floats after
detachment from the habitat, Oedogonium
General features
• Phytoplankton are called grasses of water
because of their green color and as they are the
primary producer of natural water
• Their size may range from 0.2-500 µm or more.
Though, they are microscopic plants, their
importance in the environment is great.
• They grow in seas, oceans, lakes and all types of
inland aquatic habitats ranging from rain-pools to
huge freshwater lakes.
• Their cumulative biomass replenishes nearly
70% of the O2 supply in the biosphere.
• High production of phytoplankton in the
freshwater reservoir may deplete water
quality and pollute drinking water supply
source and thus may cause economic loss.
Simplified collection procedure
• Take a clear glass bottle of one liter
capacity and put 4 ml Lugol’s Solution in it,
collect pelagic water from a lake or pond
and fill the bottle
• Keep the bottle for 48 hours in the dark.
Then pump out the overlying clear solution
of the bottle keeping the sediment layer
undisturbed.
• Mix the sediment layer (volume about
15-20 ml), take drop of this concentrate
and mount it on a clear glass slide with a
cover slip.
• Look the sample through a compound
microscope at a magnification of 10×40.
• You will see phytoplankton individuals. This
sample may be used for qualitative and
quantitative purposes
• An alternative way to collect pelagic plankton is
to haul a plankton net (Nitex, mesh aperture 25
µm or 55 µm) horizontally and after drawing
some distance
• the net should taken out and the plankton
concentrate collected in the bucket of the
plankton net should be released in a vial. From
this concentrate qualitative work on
phytoplankton could be carried out.
Plankton net Horizontal drawing
Composition
• Microalgae, bacteria and some parasitic
fungi are the components of freshwater
phytoplankton
• But the principal dominant group is algae.
However, from the functional standpoint,
the role of aquatic bacteria and fungi are
not negligible. From the table described
below
• it is apparent that there is no representative from
the brown algae in the community of plankton.
Some times fragmented parts of Compsopogon,
Bartrachospermum and Polysiphonia may
appear as tychoplankton in the sample.
Size and shape
• Among aquatic organisms, the size and shapes
of phytoplankton are really amazing
• Most of them are spherical to pyriform, cylindrical
or flattened. Their shape may range from a small
tennis ball, golf ball, egg, football to just like a
watermelon
Bloom forming fine filamentous BGA
Coccoid and filamentous BGA
• These unique size and shapes of
phytoplankton actually help them to remain
suspended in water.
• If some one considers their three-
dimensional figure they might look like
cylindrical, sphere, ellipsoidal, parallel
epiped (brick like), cone, truncated cone or
trapezoid like
• They may live without a flagella or having
single, two, four and or many flagella
• Body shape may range from single celled
to colonial or cylindrical. Largest colony
could be of Microcystis, may be ½ mm
across
An introduction to some common aquatic algae
Serl. Common Color Habitat Cell wall Example
No. name
1. Diatom Golden- Ocean, seas, Opaline silica Asterionella,
brown lakes, rivers. Melosira, Navicula,
Plankton, Nitzschia
attached, etc.
2. Green algae Grass Lake, rivers, Cellulose Scenedesmus,
green estuaries. Oocystis,
Plankton, Cladophora
attached, etc.
3. Dinofla- Red-brown Lakes, rivers, Cellulose Peridinium,
gellate estuaries. Ceratium
Plankton
4. Blue-green Blue-green Lakes, rivers, Muco-peptide Anabaena, Nostoc,
canals, ponds, Oscillatoria,
etc. Plankton, Microcystis
attached, etc.
Serl. Common Color Habitat Cell wall Example
No. name
5. Chryso- Yellow or Lakes, small Pectin Mallomonas,
phyte brownish rives. Plankton Dinobryon, etc.
green
6. Crypto- Green Lakes. Plankton Cellulose Cryptomonas,
monad Rhodomonas
7. Euglenoid Green to Ponds, lakes, Proteinaceou Euglena,
red rivers, ditches. s Trachelomonas,
Plankton Pelicle Phacus
8. Red algae Deep bluish Lakes, Oceans, Cellulose and Hildenbrandia,
layer, estuaries, etc. gel Batrachospermum,
bluish-red Attached Compsopogon,
Polysiphonia
Mallomonas spp.
• According to Round (1985) the size of
freshwater phytoplankton may range from
500-1000 µm in Volvox to 0.2 µm in pico-
plankton
• So considering variation, the former is
7500× larger than the later. From this it is
easy to understand about the great
variation in the size ranges of
phytoplankton.
Pigments
• Chlorophyll, carotene and billiprotein are the
helpful pigments for photosynthesis
• Chlorophyll a is present in almost all
phytoplankton. Chlorophyll b which is present
only in higher plant is present in euglenoid algae
• Beta carotene is present in almost all algal cells
only green algae and cryptomonad contains
some times alpha carotene. Billiproteine is
present in blue-green algae.
Biomass
• The amount of live matter present per unit
area at a given time in any ecosystem is
called biomass
• It may be expressed in various ways such
as fresh weight, dry weight, weight of
carbon, weight of ash after burning, etc.
• Most common way to express
phytoplankton biomass is the weight of
chlorophyll a per unit volume of natural
water
• This is determined by filtering may be 500 ml
pond water via Whatman GF/C filter paper by
using a filtration device
• Then the filter paper containing cells of live
phytoplankton should be dipped into hot (70°C)
ethanol for 5 minutes following cooling in tap
water.
• After making double extraction of the residue on
the filter paper all phytoplankton cells will be
broken and the chlorophyll a will be dissolved
into the solvent (ethanol).
• This solution after making it free from fine
particles should be measured in
spectrophotometer to calculate
concentration of chlorophyll a per unit
volume of water.
Suspension mechanism of plankton
• Phytoplankton must remain afloat in the
euphotic zone of water body for carrying
out primary production.
• Cells having flagella can perform this
function very easily but it is difficult for
those who do not have this
• If live cells fail to maintain its stay in the
euphotic zone, it must sink towards dark
bottom of the lake due to gravitational force
and perishes very soon without
contributing any matter in the primary
productivity
• To overcome this problem some unique
features are developed in the body of
phytoplankton which provides resistance
against sinking
• On the other hand, if phytoplankton cells
remain static in a single place of the
euphotic region, very soon they will face
stagnation in the process of nutrient uptake
• Nutrients dissolved in water are absorbed
via diffusion through cell wall. Say for
example Volvox whose maximum diameter
is 1.5 mm, so it should continue absorption
of nutrients in water covering a distance of
1.5 mm
• If Volvox remains static over this region it
would stop up-taking nutrients because of
nutrient saturation between cells and
surrounding water.
• So, to be functional, phytoplankton cells
must also move within euphotic zone to
find new sources and concentration of
nutrients
• In going to do so they should also not be
sinking too much toward dark bottom.
• So, the overall process is very crucial for
phytoplankton particularly for those having
very small dimension (0.2 µm).
• Smaller phytoplankton need to travel a
longer distance to find new concentration
gradient of nutrients
• The movement of nutrients in water can be
carried out by diffusion but the process is
very slow in water
• So a suspension mechanism of
phytoplankton cells inside water associated
with some sorts of cell locomotion is a
prerequisite for the primary productivity of
pelagic plankton
The suspension mechanism of phytoplankton can
be scientifically explained by Stokes Law.
Vs = 2gr2 (ρ' ρ)/9η
where,
Vs= terminal velocity
g = acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
η (eta) = co-efficient of velocity kg/m/s
ρ = density of water
ρ' = density of phytoplankton (kg/m3)
r = radius of the particle (m)
(ρ‘- ρ) when negative means it floats on water with a
-Vs
• Resistance due to dragging effect is a
function of surface (S) and volume (V). In
phytoplankton S/V depends upon their size
and volume
• The S/V increases as long as an organism
increases in size and departs away from its
spherical shape
• The S/V value for phytoplankton may be
10× different but their area and biomass
may be different by 100× and 108× different
• Lower variability (10×) of S/V gave
maximum favor to phytoplankton.
• Higher S/V increases dragging effect
thereby reducing sinking rate
• This helps phytoplankton to remain afloat
for some time in water which is sufficient to
complete their life cycle.
Nominal mean maximum dimensions (GALD), volume (V) and surface areas (SA) of
some phytoplankton (GALD = Greatest axial linear dimension; V = volumes; SA = surface areas).
Species Shape GALD(µm) V (µm3) SA (µm2) SA/V (/µm)
A. Unicells Ellipsoid 4 18 35 1.94
Synecococcus
Rhodomonas Ellipsoid 11 72 (39-105) 108 (74-140) 1.50
minuta (1.33-1.90)
Synedra ulna Biconvex 110 7900 4100 0.519
Ankistrodesm Cylinder 35 30 110 3.67
us falcatus
Chlorella Sphere 4 33 50 1.52
Closterium Cylinder 360 4520 4550 1.01
aciculare
Species Shape GALD(µm) V (µm3) SA (µm2) SA/V (/µm)
B. Coenobia Ellipsoid ~100 16000 18200 1.14
Pediastrum
boryanum
Scenedesmus ? ~80 1000 908 0.988
quadrica-uda
C. Filamments Cylinder 125 610 990 1.62
Aphanizome-non
flos-aquae (50
cells)
Oscillatoria Cylinder 1000 46600 24300 0.521
agardhii (1mm)
Melosira italica Cylinder 240 5930 4350(3780-4960) 0.734
var. subarctica (4740-7310) (0.679-0.797)
D. Mucila- Spherical 450 47.7×106 636×103 0.013
ginous colonies
Volvox globator
(cells~60 µm3)
• The density of freshwater phytoplankton in
most cases 1.01-1.03× higher than water.
• Quiet water helps low density
phytoplankton to sink. In this case some
physical features of phytoplankton provide
resistance
• So, if sinking rate is resisted by making
changes in body morphology of
phytoplankton then it is called form
resistance. This could be of following
types:
(i) cells elongate giving a shape of cylinder or discs
(ii) formation of spines and arms in the cell wall
(iii) presence of gas vacuole in the cellular content and
mucilage
(iv) having reserve food as oils and fats
Examples,
– Presence of horns, arms and mucilage in the cells of
Staurastrum help them to float.
– Gas vacuoles in Microcystis aeruginosa
– Parachute like Asterionella formosa var.
hypolimnetica
– Sticky mucilage inhabiting Chonochilus unicornis
– Sack like rotifer Asplancha priodonta
