Plankton the cornerstone of the marine ecosystem'

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Plankton - the cornerstone of the marine
ecosystem.
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• What is Plankton???
• Two flavors
• Phytoplankton (microscopic plants)
• Zooplankton (microscopic animals)
• Many different species.
• Major source of food and oxygen (95 of
  generation).
• Drift on ocean currents.

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Everyone loves Plankton! -Density of plankton
(amount of plankton in a given volume of water)
is an indicator of how much life that water can
support.
Need to know -how much water was sampled -how
much plankton was collected
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Plankton Sampling
Great site for calculating plankton
density http//darter.ocps.net/classroom/klenk/FT
/Pktint20.htm
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Example
If you have a drag net with a mouth radius of
0.25 meters and you drag it 4 meters, how much
water have you sampled? Show your work. This
gives you a concentrated sample of 1 liter. You
sample 0.03 liters of this and find 100 of one
type of zooplankton. What is the density of this
type of plankton in the original body of water
you sampled (expressed in units of zooplankton
per liter)? Show work. Note one cubic meter
1000 liters