Black Sea Phytoplankton checklist
Attention! The site was discontinued in 2014. The site is not supported and is not updated. Information on the site may be out of date.
Внимание! Разработка сайта прекращена в 2014 году. Сайт не поддрживается и не обновляется. Информация на сайте может быть устаревшей.
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From Black Sea Phytoplankton checklist
The largest plant community in the oceans are the free drifting microscopic Phytoplankton. These single celled organisms use solar energy by photosynthesis to survive. Though normally existing in solitary form, they may form large chains or spherical shaped colonies, some large enough to see with the naked eye. Despite their small individual size, Phytoplankton are of enormous importance in the aquatic food chain creating a food source for a variety of organisms, fish and shellfish which in turn provide a food source for larger animals. In addition, the phytoplankton provide most of the oxygen we breath and fossilised phytoplankton are associated with deposits of oil and benthic deposits (sapropell in the Black Sea).
The preparation of taxonomic list for the Black Sea phytoplankton species with the agreed geometric shapes and other relevant information is very important task. Within the EU project Black Sea SCENE, Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (IBSS) together with Institute of Marine Sciences Middle East Technical University Turkey (IMS METU), developed the tool to manage Black Sea Phytoplankton checklist.
The species description is stored in the form of wiki text in mediawiki content management system (MediaWiki is free server-based software which is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)). The key species information like taxonomy, distribution, biovolume etc. is stored in the form of templates. All other necessary information and media (images, films etc.) can be added by registered editors to the species page using simple wiki text markup.
If you are interested in the project and you would like to become an editor please contact list administrator: o.sergeyeva@ibss.org.ua
