Name : ________________
Date: _______
Biology 11 Protist : Review #2
Phytoplankton vs. Zooplankton
1. What is the difference between Zooplankton and Phytoplankton?
2. How do Phytoplankton get their nutrients?
3. Name the four main phyla of plant-like protists?
4. What organism contains an eyespot and what purpose does it serve?
5. What Phylum do Diatoms belong to?
6. List two animal-like characteristics that Euglena exhibit?
7. What does the phylum Pyrrophyta literally mean?
8. What distinctive characteristic do most Dinoflagellates exhibit?
9. Which phylum contains silica cell walls?
10. What does a fruiting body do and what two phyla exhibit fruiting bodies?
11. What is the key difference between these two phyla?
Protists and Humans
1. Most animals cannot digest cellulose, what allows termites to use wood for food?
2. What are the symptoms of African Sleeping Sickness?
3. What is the carrier of African Sleeping Sickness?
4. What are the symptoms of Amebic Dysentery?
5. Why do you think Amebic Dysentery spreads rapidly in third world countries
that do not have sanitary drinking and bathing water?
6. What is the point in studying the life cycle of pathogenic protists?
7. Describe “Red Tide”.
8. What percentage of all photosynthesis on Earth takes place near the surface of the oceans?
Summary Table : For the table below list all 9 Phyla we have studied, beside each give the type
(animal-like, plant-like, fungi-like) then name a common member of that phylum
Phylum
(Type of protist)
Some
characteristics
one-celled
make or take in food
most have one flagellum
most beautiful
make-own food
one-celled
take in food
have two flagella
one-celled
take in food
have pseudopods
one-celled
take in food
have cilia
one-celled
take in food
have two or more flagella
one-celled
take in food
no means of movement
many or one-celled
absorb food
change form during life
cycle
many or multi-nucleated
absorb food
change form during life
cycle
Example
Plant-Like Protists and Fungi-Like Protists
PHYTOPLANKTON- “Algae” is a generic term that is used to categorize any aquatic
photoautotrophs that are either microscopic or macroscopic but very primitive compared to a true
plant. Algae can include members belonging to Kingdom Protista and Kingdom Plantae.
Phytoplankton consists of free-floating microscopic organisms that contain chlorophyll giving
them the ability to photosynthesize. The majority of phytoplankton consist of unicellular
eukaryotes belonging to Kingdom Protista
Plant-like protist characteristics:
a) Chlorophyll pigment to help trap sunlight,
b) Many possess a cell wall
c) Inhabit aquatic environments or moist soil.
Phylum – EUGLENOPHYTA
- Have both plant (photosynthetic) and animal (motile and may resort to heterotrophism to obtain
nutrients) characteristics.
- Most common example: Euglena
- Lack a cell wall.
-They may photosynthesize using 10-20 chloroplasts if light is available,
but may also ingest organic matter through cystostome (a small opening
near flagellum) when necessary.
- Possess a red eyespot at anterior (front) end to detect light, use single
flagellum to move toward light-filled environment.
- Euglenoids have a semirigid plasma membrane called a pellicle.
Phylum – PYRROPHYTA (Fire Plants)
- Most commonly found in salt-water environments.
- Many species are bioluminescent when agitated.
- Most common examples: The Dinoflagellates
- Most have a brownish colour due to accessory pigments and most possess two flagella.
- Half of the dinoflagellates are photosynthetic, the other half live as heterotrophs.
- Dinoflagellates belonging to genus Gonyaulax produce neurotoxins that cause paralytic
shellfish poisoning, when blooms give rise to heavy concentrations of these dinoflagellates a
condition known as “Red Tide” occurs.
- This paralytic shellfish poisoning may pass up the food chain causing death to the consumers.
Phylum – CHRYSOPHYTA (Golden Plants)
- Include yellow-green algae, golden-brown algae
- Most members store food as oil rather than as starch.
Phylum – BACILLARIOPHYTA (diatoms)
- Diatoms produce fancy cell walls made of Silica, which does not decompose.
- Much of the world’s petroleum was formed from diatoms that lived 300 million years ago. –
diatom is from latin meaning cut in two – as these organisms are shaped so that one side fits
snuggly in the other.
FUNGI-LIKE PROTISTS – Slime and Water Molds
Fungus-like protist characteristics:
a) Chlorophyll pigment to help trap sunlight,
b) Many possess a cell wall
c) Inhabit aquatic environments or moist soil.
1. Phylum - ACRASIOMYCOTA (Cellular Slime Molds)
Amoeba-like cells that spend the majority of their time as a unicellular animal-like protist. They creep around
phagocytosing other microorganisms and bacteria.
- When conditions are unfavourable they aggregate to form a large mass of cells that acts like a single organism. It
moves like a pulsating slimy blob which may grow up to a diameter of 45 cm.
- This creeping cellular slime mold eventually migrates toward light where the cells begin to form stalks called
fruiting bodies. These fruiting body will begin to produce spores.
Spores  germination  ameba-like cell.
- Found in rotting wood, compost, and thick moist lawns.
2. Phylum – MYXOMYCOTA (Acellular Slime Molds)
- Found in same environments as Acrasiomycota.
- Amoeba-like cell divides for several generations, but the cell’s nucleus is the only thing that divides.
- The cell gets very large and is called a plasmodium (A giant cell that exists as a mass of protoplasm with many
nuclei). – A giant multinucleated amoeba-like cell.
-
When conditions become unfavourable, the plasmodium forms fruiting bodies to produce haploid spores
which germinate into flagellated cells that move to fuse with another such cell.
 to form diploid amoeba-like cell.
2. Phylum – Oomycota (Water Molds)
- thrive on dead or decaying organic matter in water and are plant parasites on land
-zoosporangia are flagellated spores.
Parasitic-The species Phytophthora infestans caused the Great Potato Famine that killed nearly a million people in
Ireland in 1846–1847. The water mold virtually wiped out the country’s potato crops, which were an essential staple
in the Irish diet (sometimes the only food on the table.)
Arbutus root rot
LIVING WITH PLANT-LIKE PROTISTS
Harmful Relationships: Very few are parasitic but they may still cause a few problems.
i) Most Euglenophytes thrive in nutrient rich water, when temperature is right they produces “Blooms”. These
blooms can block light from reaching the bottom of the littoral (vegetative shore) zone; killing plants.
ii) When dinoflagellates bloom they cause a condition known as “Red Tide”. This toxin builds up in shellfish which
may result in the shut down of certain fisheries.
b) Helpful Relationships.
i) Most phytoplankton play a crucial role in producing food and they make up the bottom of most aquatic food
chains.
- 70% of all photosynthesis on Earth takes place near the surface of the oceans. These phytoplankton provide
nourishment for everything from shrimp  whales. The role that plant-like protists play in oxygen production is
priceless!