| A | B |
|---|
| "Drifters" | Plankton |
| "Swimmers" | Nekton |
| "Bottom-dwelling" | Benthos |
| Phytoplankton | Autotrophs |
| Zooplankton | Heterotrophs |
| Bacterioplankton | Either freely suspended or attached to particles in the ocean |
| Virioplankton | Smaller than bacterioplankton; composed of bacteriophages and also those that infect algae |
| Holoplankton | Spend their entire life as plankton |
| Meroplankton | Spend their adult lives as nekton or benthos but spend their juvenile and/or larval stages as plankton |
| Macroplankton | LARGE floating animals and algae |
| Epifauna | Live on the surface of the seafloor |
| Infauna | Live buried in the sand, in discarded shells, or within mud on the ocean floor |
| Nektonbenthos | Live on the bottom but have the ability to swim or crawl through the water above the ocean floor |
| Plankton | Highly abundant; most of Earth's biomass |
| Benthos | 98% of marine species falls into this category |
| Picoplankton | Extremely small bacteria found in the ocean |
| Nekton | Includes all animals capable of moving independently of the ocean current by swimming |
| Plankton | Includes all organisms that drift with ocean currents |
| Galapagos Rift | This is where the first hydrothermal vent biocommunities were found |
| Benthos | Describes organisms living on the ocean floor |
