pleuston

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πλεῦσις (pleûsis, “sailing”), from πλέω (pléō).

Noun

pleuston (uncountable)

1. (ecology) The organisms that live floating at the surface of water.
   • 1974, G. O. Mackie, “VIII: Location, Flotation and Dispersal”, in Leonard Muscatine, Howard M. Lenhoff, editors, Coelenterate Biology: Reviews and New Perspectives, Academic Press, page 313:

     They^[Cnidarians] are also the dominant organisms of the marine pleuston, providing food or substrate for a variety of other invertebrates living at the air-water interface […] .

   • 1983, John E. G. Raymont, James Dennis Burton, Keith R. Dyer, Plankton and Productivity in the Oceans: Zooplankton, Pergamon Press, page 9:

     These animals form the pleuston. Zaitsev (1971) differentiates between the neuston and the pleuston, while admitting that the distinction may be somewhat blurred. Both populations are associated with the surface film. That part of a pleuston animal which projects above the water surface can withstand prolonged desiccation and exposure to direct sunlight.

2. (botany) Plants that live floating at the surface of water.

Usage notes

• With regard to animals, distinction is made between the pleuston and the neuston. While the distinction is not always made clear, one distinction made is that the pleuston are those whose buoyancy restricts them to living at or near the surface, while the neuston inhabit the surface itself, supported mainly by surface tension.

Hypernyms

• (botany): hydrophyte

Derived terms

• pleustonic

Related terms

• pleustal

Translations

organisms

• Finnish: pleuston
• Portuguese: pleuston (pt), plêuston (pt)

plants

• Finnish: irtokellujat pl
• Portuguese: pleuston (pt), plêuston (pt)

See also

• plankton
• nekton
• neuston

Anagrams

• upstolen

Spanish

Noun

pleuston m (uncountable)

1. pleuston