plankto-, plankt-, -plankton

Small plant or animal organisms in freshwater ecosystems: Potamoplankton is a river plankton and can be influenced in an adverse way depending on the variation of salinity in the water.

"Eupotamic" plankton are confined to fresh waters and "tychopotamic" plankton are found in streams.

Small living creatures attached to drifting debris or vegetation: Pseudoplankton secure themselves to floating flora or to fragments in the water and are thus considered part of the plankton.

A small animal or plant needle-shaped organism: Jane found out that the raphidoplankton was a tiny marine creature that had a spindle-like form or shape.

Minute organisms associated with running water: Sandra's biology teacher, Mr. Smart, told the class that rheoplankton were those that were found in rivers or other forms of flowing water.

Plankton found on the surface of stagnant water: Saproplankton inhabit or dwell in water rich in decaying organic matter or in foul waters.

It may consist primarily of "saprophytes".

A small oceanic organism composed largely of dinoflagellates: Scoticaplankton are tiny single-celled marine creatures with two long slender flagella (appendages) that lie in surface grooves at right-angles to each other. Some types are luminescent and some are toxic, especially when multiplying prolifically thus causing colorful blooms and are sometimes called the "red tide".

Minute animal or plant organisms living in darkness below the photic zone: Many scotoplankton inhabit an ocean at a depth of 250 fathoms or more.

A plankton that consists mainly of boat-shaped organisms: Skyphoplankton are oceanic creatures that are formed like a curve or a small ship.

Tiny minute marine organisms which are composed mostly of round forms: Mr. Thomas explained to his students that spherooplankton had spherical shapes, not pointed shapes.

A tiny organism that exists in stagnant water: Close to where Mark lived there was a pool of motionless water, very still, quiet, and a bit brackish, where he could find some stagnoplankton for his biology class.

Planktonic organisms of freshwater bogs and marshes: On their class trip, Bill's teacher told them about limnoplankton which could be divided into different kinds of plankton, one of them being the telmatoplankton which lived in swamps and quagmires!

Marine planktonic organisms: The small oceanic lifeform termed thalassoplankton occurs in the open sea.

An oceanic lifeform consisting mainly of filamentous algae: The trichoplankton, with threadlike fibers which are thin in diameter, are photosynthetic organisms typical of aquatic habitats.

1. Aquatic entities occasionally carried into plankton (very small plants and animals) by unexpected factors, such as by a violent movements of air or heavy moisture: When Susan and the other botany students analyzed the plant masses off the shore of the lake, they discovered that a lot of tychoplankton had been swept into the plankton probably as the result of strong winds and water turbulence.
2. Planktonic forms, particularly algae, that become inadvertently entangled among mats of vegetation near the shore: Bill and Jane noticed a mass of tychoplankton entangled in the seaweed on the beach of the ocean.

Referring to aquatic existences or substances that had been transported into plankton, for example, by wind: Such tychoplanktonic matter, having been blown into the plankton at the side of the large lake, was seen by the girls when they were walking home from school.