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What are the aquatic organism found in the ocean surface?
Marine biocycles are mainly divided into pelagic (open water) and benthic (bottom) cycles. Major communities recognized are the oceanic plankton and nekton biome in the open sea, the balanoid-gastropod-thallophyte biome on rocky shores, the pelecypod-annelid biome on sand and mud bottoms, and the coral reef biome.

 Plankton is composed of the phytoplankton ("the plants of the sea") Chaetoceros,Chlorella, Fragilaria etc and zooplankton (zoh-plankton) which are typically the tiny animals found near the surface in aquatic environments. Like phytoplankton, zooplankton are usually weak swimmers and usually just drift along with the currents. Plankton are comprised of two main groups, permanent members of the plankton, called holoplankton (such as diatoms, radiolarians, dinoflagellates, foraminifera, amphipods, krill, copepods, salps, etc.), and temporary members (such as most larval forms of sea urchins, sea stars, crustaceans, marine worms, some marine snails, most fish, etc.), which are called meroplankton. Along with phytoplankton, zooplankton are key components of marine ecosystems forming the base of most marine food webs.


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