Meroplankton are organisms that are planktonic for only a part of their life cycles, usually the larval stage. Examples of meroplankton include the larvae of sea urchins, sea stars, crustaceans, marine worms, some marine gastropods and most fish.
Have you ever tried identifying plankton under a microscope?! If not you should! This procedure is one of the make or break processes for a new scientist. I struggled at first identifying the zooplankton because many of the species and families look very similar in the larval stage. Also it is difficult to distinguish between larval stages (Meroplankton) versus the adult plankton (Holoplankton) because they have very similar characteristics. But alas, we prevailed and identified many of the common species within the Tampa Bay area (near Eggmont).
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