Nama : Teungku Ario Naldo

NPM : E1I021031
PROGRAM STUDI : ILMU KELAUTAN (A)
MARINE ORGANISM

The sea is home to billions of plants and animals. Many live only near the sunlit surface.
Here you will find everything from microscopic plankton to the giant blue whale.
Oceanographers classify marine organism by separating them into two primary groups: plants
and animals.

Plants

The most abundant plants in the ocean are known as phytoplankton. These are usually
single-called, minute floating plants that drift throughout the surface waters of the ocean. A
bucket of sea water might hold a million microscopic diatoms which are relatives of seaweed
encased in glassy boxes. To grow, phytoplankton needs nutrients from the sea water and lots of
sunlight. The most light occurs in the tropics but nutrients there, especially nitrogen and
phosphorus, are often in short supply. When large quantities of diatoms and other phytoplankton
are present, they give a color of the sea. Spectacular phytoplankton blooms are found in cooler
waters where nutrients are brought up from the sea floor during storms.

Another type of plants commonly found in the sea is algae. There are three kinds of algae
existing in the sea: Green algae (Chlorophyta), Red algae (Rhodophyta), and brown algae
(Phaeophyta). Green algae (Chlorophyta) is the most common marine plant. Chlorophyll causes
these algae to have bright green coloring. When algae leaves calcify, they add layers to ocean
sediments. Botanists believe that 200,000 algae species exist, even though only 36,000 have been
identified. Red algae (Rhodophyta), tinted by the pigment phycoerythrin, are the largest type of
marine plants and the most diverse. Some red algae adhere to corals, thus creating reefs. Both
green and red algae species prefer warm water to cold water. In contrast, brown algae
(Phaeophyta), colored with fucoxanthin pigment, are usually found in cold or temperate water,
and few species live in the tropics. On reefs, brown algae frequently are the dominant organisms.
Blue-green bacteria, or cyanobacteria (formerly called blue-green algae) are primarily
microscopic strands which convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into forms that most marine
plants can use.
Nama : Teungku Ario Naldo
NPM : E1I021031
PROGRAM STUDI : ILMU KELAUTAN (A)
Animals

Marine animals are divided into three groups: zooplankton, nekton, and
benthos.Zooplankton are drifting animals and are usually small, however, they can grow to fairly
large size. The Jellyfish and the Portuguase man-of-war are examples of larger types of
zooplankton which are unable to propel themselves effectively and are therefore at the mercy of
either wind or current. The zooplankton population also includes some temporary members such
as fish eggs or larval forms of organism which may grow up and leave the planktonic community
to join the nekton or bethos.

The free swimmers and problably the largest portion of familiar animals found in the
ocean belong to Nekton. Common fishes, the octopus, whales, eels, and squid are the examples
of this class. The nekton category includes a number of very diverse creatures.The whale,
dolphin, and porpoise are certainly very different from codfish or trout because whales represent
sea mammals whereas cod are true fishes.

The third type of sea animal spends its entire life in the ocean bottom is called as the
benthos.It includes lobsters, starfish, various worms, snails, oysters, and many more. Some of
these creatures, such as lobsters and snails, may be able to move about on the bottom but their
lifestyle is so bound up with the ocean floor that they are unable to survive away from this
environment.