What Are The Importance of Zooplankton and Phytoplankton in aWater Habitat?

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A water habitat is a body or mass of water that houses aquatic animals like shell and fin fishes. It could be as wide as an ocean, sea, lake, rivers or as small as a pond. Fishes live in water and they either feed on other fishes or small organisms for the carnivorous fishes, entirely on plant like the planktivores or on both plant and animal material as in the case of omnivores.

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Zooplankton are microscopic and macroscopic organisms found In a water habitat. They serve as food for fishes and other shell fishes. Zooplankton are ecologically important because they are important part of the food chain and food web in a water body. They feed on phytoplankton and smaller Zooplankton. Usually, they drift along the water surface, carried about by water current. Some zooplankton are found in certain water bodies. Some harbour diseases.

The most common types of zooplankton include mollusc, crustacean, chordates radiolarians, dinoflagellates, foraminiferans and cnidarians,

Phytoplankton are aquatic plants. They are common in most water bodies and serve as food for fishes and other shell animals. They are photosynthetic. That is to say that they trap energy from the sun and convert it to carbohydrates. They drift with the water current but some of them are attached to rock surfaces. Phytoplankton are divided into macrophytes and microphytes. Macrophytes are the non microscopic Flora. They are large and could be seen with the optical eyes.

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Microphytes on the other hand can only be seen with the aid of a microscope. They are some Common example of microphyte is the green algae. It is responsible for the green colour in ponds. They are mostly found in slow flowing water bodies like ponds and lakes. PhytoPlankton is the primary food source for most aquatic animals. They are thus found in the first trophic level in a food web. They are usually the primary producers. Aquatic plants also serve as cover for fish when hiding from predators, as a substrate for eggs, they release oxygen and are primarily food for fishes. In a typical small water body, we can have a food chain thus:

Phytoplankton - Zooplankton - Crustaceans - Tilapia - salmon