Picoplankton

Now that picoplankton have been characterized, they have their own further subdivisions such as prokaryotic and eukaryotic phototrophs and heterotrophs that are spread throughout the world in various types of lakes and trophic states.

[1] Overall, picoplankton play an essential role in oligotrophic dimicitc lakes because they are able to produce and then accordingly recycle dissolved organic matter (DOM) in a very efficient manner under circumstance when competition of other phytoplankters is disturbed by factors such as limiting nutrients and predators.

[3] Algal picoplankton is responsible for up to 90 percent of the total carbon production daily and annually in oligotrophic marine ecosystems.

[4] Marine picoplankton make up a higher percentage of biomass and carbon production in zones that are oligotrophic, like the open ocean, versus regions near the shore that are more nutrient rich.

[5] Picoplankton also play an important role in the microbial loop of these systems by aiding in providing energy to higher trophic levels.

They have many features that allow them to survive in these oligotrophic (low-nutrient) and low-light regions, such as the use several nitrogen sources, including nitrate, ammonium, and urea.

[6] Their small size and large surface area allows for efficient nutrient acquisition, incident light absorption, and organism growth.

[8] Marine scientists have slowly begun to understand in the last 10 or 15 years the importance of even the smallest subdivisions of plankton and their role in aquatic food webs and in organic and inorganic nutrient recycling.

As a result, newer, faster, and more accurate methods have emerged lately, including flow cytometry and image-analyzed fluorescence microscopy.