Daily Celestial Challenge "Tuesday- Animal Kingdom"

lizjim (46)in #celestialchallenge • 6 years ago (edited)

Well, continuing with the daily challenge of the community, I want to give special thanks to @sirknight and the community of @steemchurch for the beautiful creation of this #celestialchallenge

Today I want to talk about multiple organisms, responsible for aquatic and terrestrial life, because it produces half of the oxygen in our planet. In other words, living beings depend on their existence. They are the source of our food, our fuel and the air we breathe.

Plankton

Plankton comes from the Greek planktos which means "wandering". The plankton, is a collection of organisms that is left to drag by the currents. From a tiny virus to the longest animals in the world, siphonophores, through microscopic algae and krill.

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Some will go adrift for life, like these sálpidos. Others remain in the plankton in an embryo or larval state, such as mollusks and fish that, once reaching the adult stage, are situated or swim freely. Plankton plays an important role in the lives of humans. We could say, for example, that we breathe thanks to him. Certain species produce energy through photosynthesis, generating oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide. Result: the air we breathe has been renewed.

Plankton is also a great supplier of fossil energy. More than a thousand years ago, he dies perching at the bottom of the ocean, creating a layer of fossilized sediment that produces oil. In short, the plankton feeds us ... it forms the basis of the food chain where the largest eats the smallest. Without plankton, there are no fish.

Our sea is an intense blue, a blue that reflects the depths near the coasts. Along, the current Ligure drags the plankton traveling between the currents. From microscopic bacteria to the largest animals in the world: the siphonophores.

Between these two extremes, a whole world of planktonic organisms, both gelatinous and invertebrate of strange forms and habits, as well as an infinity of embryos and larvae. These planktonic beings that abound in the bay and near the coasts of Nice.

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Pelagia Noctiluca

We call them violet jellyfish, the Velellas are colonial like corals. This surface plankton lives onducted by winds and currents. These close relatives to the jellyfish return each year at the end of spring decorating our beaches with blue stripes. The jellyfish ... they often frequent our coasts in long groups. There are urticating cells inflict terrible burns: the Pelagia. There are also the innumerable microscopic jellyfish ignored by bathers.

Among the gelatinous animals you probably know Cymbulia peronii aka "Venus's helmet". Perhaps you will have found on your beaches your cartilaginous shell in the shape of a helmet. Symbulia is part of the planktonic molluscs that have transformed their foot into fin, abounding in winter and spring.

Cymbulia peronii

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When the transparent and elegant belts of Venus charm the view, summer is announced. It was thought that the hedgehogs had nothing to do with the plankton, but it is not like that. Like the vast majority of seabed animals, before becoming an adult it passes through the embryo and larval stages.

As easy prey they are the source of food for other plankton organisms, an essential link in the food chain. The few survivors will perpetuate the species that will eventually become plankton.

I hope this post serves to generate awareness, that we know that we are not independent of the rest of nature and that we must begin to make changes in our way of living if we do not want to harm the environment and the living beings on which we depend enormously. to survive, because without these species our environment would not be able to survive.