Pleuston

The Pleuston ( gr pleuston, " the sailing ", "The Floating " ) is the set of floating on the water surface or on larger creatures. The term is an analogy to, plankton ' and was introduced by Carl Schroeter and Oskar Kirchner 1896 in the literature.

Since the Pleuston may be wholly or partially out of the water, it is stronger than drifted by water currents compared to the plankton by the wind. A typical example of a Pleuston representative is the Portuguese Man ( Physalia physalis ), or water striders ( Gerromorpha ).

The community of adhering to the surface microorganisms is usually referred to as the neuston. However, the demarcation of Pleuston is not uniform in the literature.

According to Adolf control Ernst Hentschel differentiated the Pleuston in:

• Planktopleuston (eg driving algae, jellyfish, salps )
• Nektopleuston (eg whales, flying fish, turtles)
• Pteropleuston (eg seabirds )