Plankton: Environmental and Economic Importance for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Plankton is composed by unicellular, filamentous or colonial organisms that may have prokaryotic or eukaryotic cell structures. These organisms have an extreme ecological importance in the different water bodies worldwide, as they fix carbon dioxide, produce oxygen and are an important key element in the basis of various food chains. Through an industrial perspective, phytoplankton species have been used as a feedstock for a wide range of applications, such as wastewater treatment, or production of high value compounds; and commercial products, such as food and feed supplements, pharmacological compounds, lipids, enzymes, biomass, polymers, toxins, pigments. Zooplankton is commonly used as live food for larval stages to the period of termination of fish, shrimp, mollusks and corals. These types of organisms have characteristics such as a valuable nutritional composition, digestibility, buoyancy, ease of ingestion and attractive movement for post-larvae, thus presenting economic importance. This book chapter aims to demonstrate the several advantages that plankton have, their ecological and economic importance, targeting the production of add-value products.

Water Quality, Zooplankton Community and their Interaction in FUDMA Earthen Production Fish Pond

“…The monthly in addition to seasonal dissimilarity of composition and richness of zooplanktons might be due to the variations of aquatic and physicochemical parameters in the artificial lake 23 . The high richness of zooplankton in dry period could be attributed to the escalation in photic depth due to solar radioactivity intensity as well as the decrease in input muddled/turbid materials from other tributaries of the river 24 . Zooplankton spreading has been stated to serve precisely as pointers/indicators of the prevailing water quality circumstances of pond 10,19 .…”

“…Zooplankton spreading has been stated to serve precisely as pointers/indicators of the prevailing water quality circumstances of pond 10,19 . Numerous authors reported on the significance of zooplankton in the efficiency of self-cleaning developments 24 . Zooplankton is an important link in the transformation of energy from manufacturers to consumers 25 .…”

“…Zooplankton is an important link in the transformation of energy from manufacturers to consumers 25 . Zooplankton plays a main role as efficient filter feeders on the phytoplankton and as a food source for other invertebrates, fish larvae and fish 24 . In this study, copepods were the most plentiful recorded when compared with rotifers.…”

Plankton Diversity and Hydro-biological Parameters at Wazirabad Barrage in Yamuna River

“…Zooplankton, the primary consumer in the energy transfer between phytoplankton and higher trophic levels, is the other important component [5]. Plankton reacts at the slightest variation in surrounding ecosystems (Araujo et al, [6]. Therefore, plankton communities are frequently used as bioindicators to monitor ecological changes in aquatic ecosystems [7].…”

Planktonic carbon metabolism of an underwater coral atoll in the oligotrophic sea: a case study of Zhongsha Atoll, Central South China Sea

“…Particulate organic matter derived from plankton and its cellular metabolites is primarily fed by filter feeders and larvae in coral reef ecosystems (Ribes et al, 2005;Pawlik et al, 2018), and regulates benthic communities after sedimentation (Furnas et al, 2005). On the other hand, marine plankton are valuable indicators of environmental stability because they respond quickly to environmental changes due to their shortlife cycle and rapid carbon turnover rate (Furnas et al, 2005;Glacio Souza et al, 2022). Therefore, planktonic metabolism plays a pivotal role in the carbon pump of coral atolls by influencing the carbon budget of the ecosystem, and the balance between production and metabolism is effective in assessing the stability and health of the ecosystem (Bell et al, 2014;Ke et al, 2016;Xiang et al, 2022).…”