plankto-, plankt-, -plankton +

1. Periphytal organisms occasionally carried into the plankton by chance factors; such as, by a turbulence; they are also known as accidental plankton or pseudo-plankton.
2. Planktonic forms, particularly algae, that become accidentally entangled among mats of vegetation near the shore.

Another term for nanoplankton (very tiny plankton).

The biology of zooplanktons.

1. Animal plankton; floating animal organisms collectively.
2. A small animal organism present in natural waters.
3. Microscopic animals that move passively in aquatic ecosystems; such as, protozoans.
4. Microscopic drifting animal life much of which lives on or near the surface of water but some are at greater depths.

The zoologist studies the nutritional requirements and efficiencies of food conversion of marine animals (zooplankters) feeding on marine phytoplankters or on other small animals.

These tiny animals consist of rotifers, copepods, and krill, and microorganisms once classified as animals; such as, dinoflagellates and other protozoans.

To the zooplankton belong the protozoa, the sea anemones, the corals, and the incredibly shaped jellyfishes.

Zooplankton are animals that are kept in suspension by water turbulence and dispersed more by such water movements than by their own efforts. The majority are small crustaceans (copepods, krill), arrowworms, and gelatinous creatures that feed primarily on phytoplankton.