Phytoplankton

General Features

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 The term phytoplankton is derived from the Greek
word ―python‖ meaning ―plant‖.
 Phytoplankton is microscopic, drifting and chlorophyll
bearing autotrophic organisms whose movement from
one place to another place due to water current.
 Phytoplankton are free-floating microscopic plants
that are mostly unicellular and produce chemical
energy from light. This process is called primary
production.
 Phytoplankton have a critical role in primary
production, nutrient cycling, and food webs and make
up a significant proportion of the primary production
in aquatic systems (Dawes 1998).

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Phytoplankton are classified as following divisions:
 Cyanophyta
 Chlorophyta
 Prochlorophyta
 Euglenophyta
 Pyrrhophyta
 Cryptophyta
 Chrysophyta
 Bacillariophyta

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Cyanophyta

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Cyanophyta
 Cyanophyta - also known as blue-green algae and
Cyanobacteria, which is a phylum of bacteria that
obtain their energy through photosynthesis.
 Cyanobacteria can be found in almost every
terrestrial and aquatic habitat—oceans, fresh water,
damp soil, temporarily moistened rocks in deserts,
bare rock and soil, and even Antarctic rocks.
 Aquatic cyanophyta are known for their extensive and
highly visible blooms that can form in both fresh
water and marine environments. The blooms can
have the appearance of blue-green paint or scum.

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Chlorophyta

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Chlorophyta
 Chlorophyta is a division of green algae - informally
called chlorophytes, which are common inhabitants of
marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments.
 Several species have adapted to specialized and
extreme environments, such as deserts, arctic
environments, hypersaline habitats, marine deep
waters and deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
 Several species of Chlorophyta live in symbiosis with
a diverse range of eukaryotes, including fungi to form
lichens, ciliates, Foraminifera, Cnidaria and molluscs.
 Some species of Chlorophyta are heterotrophic, either
free-living or parasitic. The heterotrophic green alga
Prototheca can cause infections in humans and
animals known as protothecosis.
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Prochlorophyta

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Prochlorophyta
 Prochlorophytes are very small microbes generally
between 0.2 and 2 µm.
 Prochlorophyta are abundant in nutrient poor tropical
waters and use a unique photosynthetic pigment,
divinyl-chlorophyll, to absorb light and acquire
energy.
 They morphologically resemble Cyanobacteria (known
as Blue Green Algae). Prochlorophyta lack red and
blue Phycobilin pigments and have stacked
thylakoids, making them distinctly different from
Cyanophyta (Cyanobacteria).

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Euglenophyta

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Euglenophyta
 Euglenophyta or Euglenoids are one of the best-
known groups of flagellates, commonly found in
freshwater especially when it is rich in organic
materials, with a few marine and endosymbiotic
members.
 Most Euglenoids are unicellular.
 Many Euglenophytes have chloroplasts and produce
energy through photosynthesis, but others feed by
phagocytosis or strictly by diffusion.

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Pyrrhophyta

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Pyrrhophyta
 Pyrrhophyta or Dinoflagellates are unicellular and
possess two dissimilar flagellae arising from the
ventral cell side.
 Dinoflagellates are marine plankton, but they are
common in fresh water habitats as well. Many
dinoflagellates are known to be photosynthetic, but a
large fraction of these are in fact mixotrophic,
combining photosynthesis with ingestion of prey.
 In terms of number of species, dinoflagellates form
one of the largest groups of marine eukaryotes,
although this group is substantially smaller than the
diatoms.
 Some species are endosymbionts of marine animals.
Other dinoflagellates are colorless predators on other
protozoa, and a few forms are parasitic. An algal
bloom of dinoflagellates can result in a visible
coloration of the water colloquially known as red tide.
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Cryptophyta

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Cryptophyta
 Cryptophyta or cryptomonads are a group of algae,
most of which have plastids. They are common in
freshwater, and also occur in marine and brackish
habitats. Each cell is around 10–50 μm in size and
flattened in shape.
 Some of the cryptomonads may exhibit mixotrophy.
 Cryptomonads have one or two chloroplasts. These
contain chlorophylls a and c, together with
phycobiliproteins and other pigments, and vary in
color (brown, red to blueish-green).

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Chrysophyta

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Chrysophyta
 Chrysophytes, or golden algae, are common in fresh
water. Some species are colorless, but the vast
majority are photosynthetic.
 They are not considered truly autotrophic by some
biologists because nearly all chrysophytes
become facultatively heterotrophic in the absence of
adequate light, or in the presence of plentiful
dissolved food.

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Bacillariophyta

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Bacillariophyta
 Bacillariophyta represent the diatoms. Diatoms are a
major group of algae, and are among the most
common types of phytoplankton. Most diatoms are
unicellular, although they can exist as colonies in the
shape of filaments or ribbons, zigzags or stars.
 A unique feature of diatom cells is that they are
encased within a cell wall made of silica (hydrated
silicon dioxide) called a frustule. These frustules show
a wide diversity in form, but are usually almost
bilaterally symmetrical.

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Phytoplankton physiology

Metabolic rates

Nutrient uptake
An integrative
approach to
describing
phytoplankton
Light absorption function and structure
in relation to marine
bio-geochemical
Sinking rate cycling
(Marañón 2009).

Exported production
Cell size

Marine food-web

A number of biogeochemical models use a size class partitioning

Ecological factors:-
A. Abiotic factor: -

Physical Chemical Dynamic

1. Light. 1. Oxygen 1. Current

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B. Biotic factors: -

1. Dissolves organic matters

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