Today marked the last day of the first week of the Marine Bio course at Jesuit. The previous night’s article discussed the influence of viruses in a marine ecosystem. What I never realized was the benfits of having viruses present in the ecosystem because they can promote biodiversity (have stronger, more resistant organisms survive and pass their genes) and surpress populations of organisms such as certain species of bacteria from overpopulating.
Today’s class also discussed the different types of plankton and the roles they perform in the environment. Plankton refers to drifting microorganisms such as animals, animal-like protists, microscopic algae, and bacteria (plankton are not classified by specific organisms). They inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans and other large bodies of water and are defined as either zooplankton (animals, animal-like protists) or phytoplankton (plant-like organisms). They can be producers of essential combounds and oxygen or food for other organisms higher up on the food chain. Some plankton are holoplankton while others are meroplankton. Holoplankton only spend a part of their lives as plankton and eventually grow and develop into larger organisms. Meroplankton remain as microscopic organisms their entire lives.
We went over our marine charts today as well. Why today’s review helped, I feel that I still need to review it more in order to have a clearer understanding of it all.
