PLANKTON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does plankton mean? 

• PLANKTON (noun)
  The noun PLANKTON has 1 sense:

1. the aggregate of small plant and animal organisms that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water

  Familiarity information: PLANKTON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLANKTON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The aggregate of small plant and animal organisms that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("plankton" is a kind of...):

being; organism (a living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently)

Meronyms (parts of "plankton"):

copepod; copepod crustacean (minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish)

Meronyms (members of "plankton"):

phytoplankton (photosynthetic or plant constituent of plankton; mainly unicellular algae)

zooplankton (animal constituent of plankton; mainly small crustaceans and fish larvae)

Holonyms ("plankton" is a member of...):

aggregate; congeries; conglomeration (a sum total of many heterogenous things taken together)

Derivation:

planktonic (of or relating to plankton)

 Context examples 

The turbulence caused by the boat sliding through the water excites the plankton to emit light, which reveals the existence of the the turbulent regions in the underlying dark water.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

From dust to dust—or dune to plankton.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

Although the sea is a hostile environment for plankton, this grouping behaviour increases their chances of survival and explains why the oceans are full of these microbes.

(Study by UGR and MIT reveals microbial plankton live in complex communities, University of Granada)

Detrital carbonate is more resistant to dissolution compared to the calcium carbonate produced by plankton that falls directly to the seafloor.

(Detrital carbonate, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

Steep slopes in the seabed also cause an upwelling of sea currents that stimulate plankton and small crustaceans such as krill that the whale sharks feed on.

(New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities, Wikinews)

So far, the investigators have used the technique to look at cell-to-cell variations in growth rates of phytoplankton; observe viral infections inside phytoplankton cells; trace movements of nutrients from marine bacteria into microbial predators; and identify and quantify microplastic particles in marine plankton samples.

(Cell chemistry illuminated by laser light, National Science Foundation)

Marine life researchers from the UK and Australia are using the sounds of healthy sea life to attract fish and plankton, hoping to get them to help revive dying swaths of the Great Barrier Reef.

(Loudspeakers used to attract fish back to dying coral reefs, SciDev.Net)

This new study, however, has found that the reason why microbial plankton come together in complex, cohesive groups is to collectively face the nutrient-poor heterogeneous ecological landscape they live in.

(Study by UGR and MIT reveals microbial plankton live in complex communities, University of Granada)

When the conditions are right, fluorescent plankton can light up around the boat as it sails.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

This new study, however, has found that although the sea is a hostile environment for plankton, this grouping behaviour increases their chances of survival and allows them to collectively face the nutrient-poor heterogeneous ecological landscape they live in.

(Study by UGR and MIT reveals microbial plankton live in complex communities, University of Granada)