Pseudoplanktonic
organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells ( cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fu ...
s are those that attach themselves to
planktonic
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cruc ...
organisms or other floating objects, such as drifting wood,
buoyant shells of organisms such as ''
Spirula'', or man-made
flotsam
In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...
. Examples include
goose barnacle
Goose barnacles, also called stalked barnacles or gooseneck barnacles, are filter-feeding crustaceans that live attached to hard surfaces of rocks and flotsam in the ocean intertidal zone. Goose barnacles formerly made up the taxonomic order P ...
s and the bryozoan ''
Jellyella''. By themselves these animals cannot
float, which contrasts them with true planktonic organisms, such as ''
Velella'' and the
Portuguese Man o' War
The Portuguese man o' war (''Physalia physalis''), also known as the man-of-war, is a marine hydrozoan found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It is considered to be the same species as the Pacific man o' war or blue bottle, which is ...
, which are buoyant. Pseudoplankton are often found in the guts of filtering
zooplankters.
References
Biological oceanography
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