The long read: Without plankton, the modern ocean ecosystem – the very idea of the ocean as we understand it – would collapse. Earth would have no complex life of any kind
Without plankton, the modern ocean ecosystem – the very idea of the ocean as we understand it – would collapse. Earth would have no complex life of any kind
Every week since 1957, in one of the longest-running surveys of its kind anywhere in the world, scientists have come to this exact spot to study some of the most abundant and important life forms in the ocean: creatures so tiny that the vast majority are invisible to the naked eye, yet so essential to Earth’s ecosystems that our planet would be virtually barren without them – creatures we call plankton.
At first glance, it looked like little more than water peppered with dust. As I peered closer, however, it became clear that the water was alive. The dark specks I mistook for dust were not merely floating – they were twitching. Other, tinier particles spun and sputtered. A few dime-sized jellyfish pulsated near the surface of the container, so diaphanous they seemed to phase in and out of existence with the shifting light.
The smallest plankton are consumed by larger plankton, including the larvae of fish and crustaceans, which in turn feed a succession of bigger sea creatures, from herring and squid to seals and dolphins, so that plankton ultimately support all marine life. A single drop of seawater might contain tens of thousands of plankton on average, but at times it will hold many more.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continuously dissolves into the ocean’s surface, where sun-loving phytoplankton incorporate it into their cells during photosynthesis. Much of this carbon is released in shallow waters when zooplankton and microbes eat and decompose phytoplankton, consuming oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide in the process. Phytoplankton that evade consumption usually live for days or at most weeks.
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