Q 01/05

The word 'plankton' comes from a Greek word meaning what?

A) Drifter or wanderer

B) Glowing water

C) Tiny floating one

D) Dust of the sea

Answer · why

A) Drifter or wanderer

Drifter or wanderer, from the Greek planktos. The name describes a way of life, not a size: anything that cannot swim against the current counts, from...

Q 02/05

What is the scientific term for a single organism of the plankton?

A) A plankter

B) A planktonite

C) A planktoid

D) A planktid

Answer · why

A) A plankter

A plankter. You need a microscope to see most of them, yet a bloom can cover hundreds of square kilometres and show up in satellite images.

Q 03/05

Which whale feeds almost exclusively on krill, the shrimp-like animals of the plankton?

A) Sperm whale

B) Orca

C) Blue whale

D) Beluga

Answer · why

C) Blue whale

Blue whale. The largest animal known to have lived survives on prey a few centimetres long, sieving several tonnes of krill a day through the baleen p...

Q 04/05

Organisms such as fish and squid that can swim against currents, unlike plankton, are called what?

A) Benthos

B) Seston

C) Nekton

D) Neuston

Answer · why

C) Nekton

Nekton, from the Greek for 'swimming'. Membership can change with age: most fish and squid hatch as plankton and join the nekton only once they are st...

Q 05/05

Phytoplankton release about as much oxygen each year as all the world's what?

A) Rainforests

B) Kelp forests

C) Coral reefs

D) Land plants

Answer · why

D) Land plants

Land plants. They manage it by living fast: a single phytoplankton cell rarely lasts more than a few days, while a tree can stand for decades.