« Back to Glossary Index
A diverse category of tiny plants, animals, and bacteria that live suspended in the water column and are too small to swim against the current. There are two general types of plankton: Phytoplankton are microscopic, single-celled plants and other photosynthetic organisms that inhabit the upper sunlit waters of the ocean. Zooplankton are animals that live all or part of their life as plankton, suspended and drifting in the water; some zooplankton are the larvae (young) of animals such as lobsters, crabs, clams, sea stars, and sea urchins that live on the seabed as adults.