Seashore Resource

3. Plankton. Invisible life in the sea

Seawater is like watery soup. In it floats PLANKTON.
Plankton is the foundation of the foodchain.
Plankton is the name for tiny plants and animals floating in the sea.
There are phytoplankton, microscopic plants and zooplankton, microscopic animals.

All life depends on plants but these plants are so tiny, it is impossible to see them without a microscope.

Plant plankton are diatoms and dinoflagellates. Each one is a single cell.

All these are shown about 2000 times larger than life.

A dinoflagellate can move by beating its threadlike flagellum.

Mudflat diatoms

A diatom has a shell in two parts, fitting together like a shoebox and its lid. When the diatom grows, the two halves separate to make two diatoms. Diatom numbers may DOUBLE on a warm sunny day. Just imagine if grass grew that quickly!

51 kinds of mudflat diatom have been found in the mud of the upper Manukau Harbour.

Here's Kiri Kiwi looking through a microscope. I wonder what she can see?

Kiri kiwi uses the microscope