Plankton

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-021117",
  "term": "Plankton",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The floating or weakly swimming plant and animal life in a body of water, often microscopic in size.\n\n2. Small, usually microscopic, plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) in aquatic systems.\n\n3. All of the smaller floating, suspended or self-propelled organisms in a body of water.\n\n4. Small and microscopic free-floating plants, animals and bacteria. Plankton have limited or no swimming ability and are transported by currents and tides.\n\n5. Free-swimming (as opposed to rooted/stationary) microscopic plants (phytoplankton) or animals (zooplankton) that live in water; they can be larval forms of other animals such as fish or crustaceans, or adult forms of plants and animals.\n\n6. Tiny plants and animals that live in water.\n\n7. Small and microscopic free-floating plants, animals and bacteria. Plankton have limited or no swimming ability and are transported by currents and tides. [Chesapeake Bay Glossary]\n\n8. One of three major ecological groups into which marine organisms are divided, the other two being the nekton and the benthos. Plankton are small aquatic organisms (animals and plants) that, generally having no locomotive organs, drift with the currents. The animals in this category include protozoans, small crustaceans, and the larval stages of larger organisms, while plant forms are mainly diatoms.\n\n9. Small and microscopic free-floating plants, animals and bacteria. Plankton have limited or no swimming ability and are generally transported by currents and tides.",
  "subject": "Water",
  "references": [
    "Aquatic Biodiversity Glossary",
    "Drinking Water Technical & Legal Terms",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "Ecological Risk Assessment Glossary of Terms",
    "Terms of Environment",
    "NSTEPS Online Glossary of Terms",
    "USGS Status and Trends of the Nation's Biological Resources Vol. 2 Glossary at http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/sandt/Glossary.pdf",
    "N-STEPS Online Glossary of Terms"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/plankton/"
}