Bacterioplankton

Information about Bacterioplankton

Bacterioplankton refers to the bacterial component of the plankton that drifts in the water column. The name comes from the Greek word πλανκτος ("planktos"), meaning "wanderer" or "drifter" (Thurman, 1997), and bacterium, a word coined in the 19th century by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. They are found in both seawater and freshwater.

Bacterioplankton occupy a range of ecological niches in aquatic systems. Many are saprotrophic, and obtain energy by consuming organic material produced by other organisms. This material may be dissolved in the medium and taken directly from there, or bacteria may live and grow in association with particulate material such as marine snow. Many other bacterioplankton species are autotrophic, and derive energy from either photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. The former are often categorised as picophytoplankton, and include cyanobacterial groups such as Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus. Bacterioplankton also play roles in ecological pathways such as nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification, remineralisation and methanogenesis.

Like other small plankton, the bacterioplankton are preyed upon by zooplankton (usually protozoans), and their numbers are also controlled through infection by bacteriophages.

References

Thurman, H. V. (1997). Introductory Oceanography. New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall College.

Plankton are any drifting organism that inhabits the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. It is a description of life-style rather than a genetic classification.
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Writing system: Greek alphabet
Official status
Official language of: Greece
Cyprus
European Union
recognised as minority language in parts of:
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Regulated by:
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For the periodical, see .

The 19th Century (also written XIX century) lasted from 1801 through 1900 in the Gregorian calendar. It is often referred to as the "1800s.
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Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (April 19, 1795 – June 27, 1876), German naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist, was one of the most famous and productive scientists of his time.
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Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of ~3.5%, or 35 parts per thousand. This means that every 1 kg of seawater has approximately 35 grams of dissolved salts (mostly, but not entirely, the ions of sodium chloride: Na
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Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve.
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niche (pronounced nich, neesh or nish)^[] is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem^[1]. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (e. g.
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A saprotroph (or saprobe) is an organism that obtains its nutrients from non-living organic matter, usually dead and decaying plant or animal matter, by absorbing soluble organic compounds.
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Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a broad classification for organic molecules of varied origin and composition within aquatic systems. The "dissolved" fraction of organic carbon is an operational classification. Many researchers place the dissolved/colloidal cutoff at 0.
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marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. Its origin lies in activities within the productive photic zone.
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autotroph (from the Greek autos = self and trophe = nutrition) is an organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules and an external source of energy, such as light or chemical reactions of inorganic compounds.
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Chemosynthesis is the biological conversion of 1-carbon molecules (usually carbon dioxide or methane) and nutrients into organic matter using the oxidation of inorganic molecules (e.g.
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Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of plankton. The name comes from the Greek terms, phyton or "plant" and πλαγκτος ("planktos"), meaning "wanderer" or "drifter".
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Cyanobacteria

Orders

The taxonomy is currently under revision.^[1]

Cyanobacteria (Greek: κυανόs (kyanós) = blue + bacterium) also known as Cyanophyta
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Prochlorococcus
Chisholm et al., 1992

Species
P. marinus

Prochlorococcus is a genus of very small (0.6 µm) marine cyanobacteria with an unusual pigmentation (chlorophyll b
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Synechococcus
Nägeli, 1849

Species
See text
Synechococcus is a unicellular cyanobacterium that is very widespread in the marine environment. Its size varies from 0.8 µm to 1.5 µm.
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Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen is taken from its natural, relatively inert molecular form (N₂) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds (such as, notably, ammonia, nitrate and nitrogen dioxide)^[1]
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Nitrification is the biological oxidation of ammonia with oxygen into nitrite followed by the oxidation of these nitrites into nitrates. Nitrification is an important step in the nitrogen cycle in soil. This process was discovered by the Russian microbiologist, Sergei Winogradsky.
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Denitrification is the process of reducing nitrate and nitrite, highly oxidised forms of nitrogen available for consumption by many groups of organisms, into gaseous nitrogen, which is far less accessible to life forms but makes up the bulk of our atmosphere.
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In biogeochemistry, remineralisation refers to the transformation of organic molecules to inorganic forms, typically mediated by biological activity.

Usually remineralisation relates to organic and inorganic molecules involving biologically important elements such as carbon,
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Methanogens are archaea that produce methane as a metabolic byproduct in anoxic conditions. They are common in wetlands, where they are responsible for marsh gas, and in the guts of animals such as ruminants and humans, where they are responsible for the methane content of
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predation describes a biological interaction where a predator organism feeds on another living organism or organisms known as prey.^[1] Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them.
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Zooplankton are the heterotrophic (or detritivorous) component of the plankton that drift in the water column of oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The name is derived from the Greek terms, ζῴον
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Protozoa (in Greek proto = first and zoa = animals) are one-celled eukaryotes (that is, unicellular microbes whose cells have membrane-bound nuclei) that commonly show characteristics usually associated with animals, mobility and heterotrophy.
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An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host's resources to multiply (usually at the expense of the host).
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bacteriophage (from 'bacteria' and Greek phagein, 'to eat') is any one of a number of viruses that infect bacteria. The term is commonly used in its shortened form, phage.

Typically, bacteriophages consist of an outer protein hull enclosing genetic material.
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Pelagibacter

Species: P. ubique

Binomial name
Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique
Rappé et al.
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Bacterioplankton

Information about Bacterioplankton

References

See also

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