Plankton are mostly microscopic small organisms floating in the water. The major share of aquatic vegetation here consists of single-celled algae, the so-called phytoplankton. In 2012, within the Rhine monitoring programme ‘Biology’, the phytoplankton of the Rhine was analysed from Lake Constance to the Rhine delta. The phytoplankton biomass proved to be slightly above that during the monitoring programmes in 2000 and 2006/2007. Considering the long-term trend and compared to the 1980s, the phytoplankton biomass however remains on a low level.
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