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Blackwell Synergy - Environ Microbiol, Volume 9 Issue 2 Page 546 - February 2007 (Article Abstract)
Eukaryotic diversity associated with carbonates and fluid-seawater interface in Lost City hydrothermal field .
We have carried out a molecular survey based on 18S rDNA sequences of the eukaryotic communities associated with fluid–seawater interfaces and with carbonates from venting areas and the chimney wall.
Alveolates were the most abundant and diverse group in Lost City samples, although their distribution was very different in carbonate, where ciliates dominated, and in fluid–seawater libraries, where dinoflagellates, Group I and Group II (Syndiniales) marine alveolates were profuse.
Similarly, Euglenozoa also displayed a differential distribution, kinetoplastids being present on carbonates and a novel group of diplonemids so far exclusively observed in the deep sea being dominant in fluid–seawater libraries.


SEA PLANKTON

Phytoplankton: Plants of the Sea
Phytoplankton: Plants of the Sea by Prentice K.
But more numerous by far are the tiny microscopic animals and plants collectively called plankton, a word derived from the Greek meaning wandering.
The plant portion of this complex oceanic soup is called phytoplankton.
Thus, these phytoplankton are the basis for the oceanic food chain.
Among the most abundant phytoplankton are the diatoms.
This silica, the main ingredient of glass, is extracted from the surrounding seawater.
Minute holes or pores in their shells permit nutrient absorption and an exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen to take place with the surrounding seawater.
Clearly, such reproductive capacity creates vast numbers - as many as a billion of them in a gallon of seawater.
In some areas of the sea, their skeletal remains form layers up to 700-feet thick.
(See fact sheet on zooplankton .) A hand lens or microscope will assist in the viewing of these fascinating organisms.

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Photo by www.girr.org

Scotsman.com News - UK - Sea change as plankton head north
The first 'annual report card' by a group of government scientists and leading academics involved in studying the sea, published today, provides an assessment of the state of UK waters.
It details rising sea levels, an increase in storms and acidity and a rise in salt levels in surface sea water.
It also reports a major shift in the types of plankton - the fundamental building block of most marine animal life - found off the coast of Britain.
Species found off the coast of Brittany 40 years ago have gradually drifted 600 miles north to southern Scotland as seas have warmed.
Experts said sea birds, such as guillemots and puffins, might gradually have to move northwards while the decline of the kittiwake, one of Scotland's most common seabirds, which has seen its numbers fall by half over the past 15 years, has been linked to increasing winter temperatures.
Rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification and melting polar ice are not just predictions, they are happening now.
This report card contains some disturbing facts, showing that climate change is already having a noticeable impact on marine species from plankton to seabirds.' .
'The changes in plankton have been extraordinary.

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CAT.INIST
Résumé / Abstract The toxicity of tributyltin (TBT) to a neritic North Sea plankton community was studied in experiments using outdoor enclosures with a volume of 1.2 m[3].
Median effective concentration (EC50) values were determined for the dominant zooplankton species, Temore longicornis (Copepoda).
At high TBT concentrations, enhanced pH levels and oxygen concentrations were observed, indicating high algal production levels, which would result from reduced grazing by zooplankton.

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