Plankton are tiny little creatures but ever so important to us all . . . .

Plankton is the name given to all the little plants and animals which live in water and just float along with the current.  Some of them can swim but they can't swim strongly enough to swim against the flow of water.  Most plankton are tiny, tiny little organisms which we can only see by using a magnifying glass or microscope.

These are photos of some of the little plants found in the water. The correct name for plant plankton is phytoplankton and they are usually green becuase it is the colour or pigment which makes it possible for them to use the sun's light energy.  Like all plants they use the sun's light energy to build the materials they need to grow, such as sugars and starch.  This is called photosynthesis which means building with light.

Once these plants have used the sun's energy to build these materials to grow, then animals eat them and use the energy they contain so that the animals can grow too.  When you eat your breakfast cereals you are eating plants which are full of energy they got from the sunlight.  They give you the energy you need to be able to grow, run around and to think.

Some of the animals that eat the plant plankton are also plankton.  The correct name for animal plankton is zooplankton and this includes not only whole tiny animals but also eggs and larva of larger animals.

This is a photo of eggs floating in the water.  They are very similar to frog spawn but when they grow and change into the adult animal they won't be frogs but fish that live in the sea.  Many of these little eggs will get eaten by other fish before they are able to grow up though.

The photos above are of the larva of shellfish.  These don't look much like the adult form at all but one day they will grow and change and will become adults like their parents. Then they will grow their own shells around them to protect them.  The photo on the left is of the larva of a barnacle!

Some zooplankton are quite large.  This moon jellyfish is a type of plankton since it cannot swim very well and gets pushed about by the sea currents.  But just like the smaller plankton jellyfish are an important food for other large animals.  Turtles love eating jellyfish.

All these little tiny plankton floating in the water are used as food by larger animals.  The larger animals are then eaten by even larger animals.  Without the plankton there wouldn't be much life in the sea at all.  Even some of the enormous whales eat plankton and others eat the fish which live on plankton.  Minke whales eat little fish such as sand eels and herring.  The sand eels and herring live on smaller animals - the zooplankton.  The zooplankton gets its energy from the plant plankton.  And the plant plankton gets its energy from the Sun.

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