Neuston

The water strider, a common freshwater neuston

Neuston, also called pleuston, are organisms that live at the surface of a body of water, such as an ocean, estuary, lake, river, wetland or pond. Neuston can live on top of the water surface or submersed just below the water surface. In addition, microorganisms can exist in the surface microlayer that forms between the top- and the under-side of the water surface. Neuston has been defined as "organisms living at the air/water interface of freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats or referring to the biota on or directly below the water’s surface layer."[1]

Neustons can be informally separated into two groups: the phytoneuston, which are autotrophs floating at the water surface including cyanobacteria, filamentous algae and free-floating aquatic plant (e.g. mosquito fern, duckweed and water lettuce); and the zooneuston, which are floating heterotrophs such as protists (e.g. ciliates) and metazoans (aquatic animals). This article mainly concerns with metazoan zooneustons.

The word "neuston" comes from Greek neustos, meaning "swimming", and the noun suffix -on (as in "plankton").[2] This term first appears in the biological literature in 1917.[3] The alternative term pleuston comes from the Greek plein, meaning "to sail or float". The first known use of this word was in 1909, before the first known use of neuston.[4] In the past various authors have attempted distinctions between neuston and pleuston, but these distinctions have not been widely adopted. As of 2021, the two terms are usually used somewhat interchangeably, and neuston is used more often than pleuston.

  1. ^ Kennish, Michael J., ed. (2016). "Encyclopedia of Estuaries". Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-8801-4. ISBN 978-94-017-8800-7. ISSN 1388-4360. S2CID 129770661.
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster Dictionary: neuston. Accessed 18 December 2021.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Naumann2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Dictionary: pleuston. Accessed 18 December 2021.