Picoplankton

Photosynthetic picoplankton off the Marquesas Islands observed by epifluorescence microscopy (blue exciting light). Orange fluorescing dots correspond to Synechococcus cyanobacteria, red fluorescing dots to picoeukaryotes.

Picoplankton is the fraction of plankton composed by cells between 0.2 and 2 μm that can be either prokaryotic and eukaryotic phototrophs and heterotrophs:

  • photosynthetic
  • heterotrophic

They are prevalent amongst microbial plankton communities of both freshwater and marine ecosystems. They have an important role in making up a significant portion of the total biomass of phytoplankton communities.