The continuity of living matter and the discontinuities of its constituents: do plankton and benthos really exist?

Plankton and benthos are popular concepts identifying two ways of life of marine organisms. Their spatial separation led to the development of different sampling techniques and to separate conceptualizations of the principles governing these subsets of the acquatic environment. Reciprocal connections between plankton and benthos, however, are very strong both from a functional (energy fluxes) and a structural (life cycle dynamics) point of view. A full appreciation of such links is forcing marine ecology towards a more integrated approach.