Editorial: “We need joined-up ocean records“
IF YOU fill a jar with seawater and peer at it, you probably won’t see much. Filter some through a very fine net and take a look with a microscope, though, and a whole world of plants and animals appears. This invisible world is absolutely vital to life on Earth.
Most of the oxygen you are breathing was made by minuscule algae and bacteria. These plants, known as phytoplankton, provide half of the food on which all the animals on this planet depend. From the puniest shrimp to the mightiest whale, almost every creature living in the oceans ultimately relies on phytoplankton, as do many land-dwellers – including us. Three billion people depend in part on seafood for protein, and the livelihoods of nearly a tenth of the world’s population are linked to fisheries.
Phytoplankton, in short, help make the world go round. “It’s a big part of the planet’s life-support system. If phytoplankton decline, it threatens the food base of a vast part of the biosphere,” says marine biologist Boris Worm. “There’s less fuel in the tank of the machinery of life, and you just don’t get as far.”
Phytoplankton are a big part of the planet’s life-support system. If they decline, it threatens the food base of a vast part of the biosphere
See some of the most photogenic phytoplankton in our gallery “Micro-beauties of the sea plant world“
This is dramatically illustrated during El Niño events, when plankton levels plummet in the eastern Pacific, with huge consequences for the rest of the ecosystem. “When you go to the Galapagos during