Aerial plankton

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As aeroplankton or aerial plankton are generally tiny biological organisms such. B. tiny animals ( thunderstorm animals , canopy spiders ), algae , viruses , bacteria or components such as pollen , spores and plant seeds that do not or hardly fly on their own but can be carried by the wind .

The so-called “thunderstorm animals” ( Thysanoptera ), which have fringed wings but cannot fly actively, use the wind and the good thermals before a thunderstorm to drive them and then appear en masse. The meteorological significance of the flight of swallows and common swifts , which feed on flying insects and aerial plankton, is based on the changing wind and air pressure conditions . In a sunny high pressure weather situation, the components of the air plankton are carried into higher layers by the rising warm air. Swallows and swifts then fly at these altitudes of up to 3,000 meters, the birds flying high indicate that the weather will continue to be good. When the high pressure center moves away or the air cools during thunderstorms, the air plankton is in low layers of air. The birds that feed on it fly lower.

Fringe-winged small butterflies such as the horse chestnut leaf miner ( Cameraria ohridella ) and other leaf miners are also found in the aerial plankton.

The massive occurrence of the canopy spiders (Linyphiidae) during the last warm days of late summer has led to the name Indian summer . The thread that the spiders produce and on which they float through the air reminds people of the gray hair of old women. For the spiders "ballooning" or " airships " is a successful way of spreading. As early as 1832, Charles Darwin reported in his diary that countless small spiders with their flight threads got caught in the rigging of his research vessel almost 100 km off the coast of South America . He concluded that the spiders can colonize islands far from the mainland in this way.

Some organisms are transported to great heights by thermals. They reach a height of several thousand meters.

Optional terrestrial algae are distributed via the aerial plankton. However, they can only survive temporarily in the top soil layer as soil flora and are then again dependent on air living stages.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David J. Smith (2013): Aeroplankton and the Need for a Global Monitoring Network. BioScience Vol. 63 No. 7: 515-516. doi : 10.1525 / bio.2013.63.7.3 .
  2. ↑ Gerrit Stratmann: Why can you read the weather from the flight of swallows? In: DeutschlandRadio Berlin. August 9, 2004, archived from the original on February 25, 2005 ; accessed on January 31, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Werner Nachtigall: Insect flight: construction morphology, biomechanics, flight behavior. Springer, Berlin 2003, p. 358 ISBN 3-540-00047-X .
  4. ↑ HE Schlichting jr. (1969): The Importance Of Airborne Algae and Protozoa, Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 19 (12): 946-951, doi : 10.1080 / 00022470.1969.10469362 .

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