phytoplankton is the world’s most important plant
phytoplankton is the world’s most important plant.
“PHYTOPLANKTON” is mostly microscopic, single-celled photosynthetic organisms suspended in water. They act as land plants, taking up carbon dioxide, making carbohydrates using light energy, and releasing oxygen. They are what are known as the primary producers of the ocean – the organisms that form the basis of the food chain.
Because they need light, “PHYTOPLANKTON” lives near the surface, where sufficient sunlight can power photosynthesis. The thickness of this layer of the ocean—the euphotic zone—varies depending on the clarity of the water, but is limited to a maximum of 200 to 300 m (600 to 900 ft), out of an average ocean depth of 4,000 m (13,000 ft).
“PHYTOPLANKTON” includes two very different types of organisms. The larger category includes the single-celled algae known as protists—advanced eukaryotic cells similar to protozoans. These forms include diatoms and are most abundant near the coasts. Sometimes, these organisms cause rapid population explosions in response to changing seasons and the availability of nutrients such as nitrogen, iron, and phosphorus.
The other type of “PHYTOPLANKTON” cell, more primitive but far more abundant than algae, is photosynthetic bacteria. These tiny cells, some of which are only a micron across, are invisible, but their number is in the hundreds of thousands of cells per teaspoon of ocean water. Too small to be caught in any trap, these creatures were unknown until the 1970s, when better technology made them visible. Scientists now know that these bacteria are responsible for half of the ocean’s primary productivity and are the most abundant organisms in the ocean. This group also includes cyanobacteria, which are believed to be one of the oldest organisms on Earth and the origin of photosynthetic organisms in plant cells known as chloroplasts.
Why are they important?
“PHYTOPLANKTON” is one of the most important organisms on Earth, so it is important to study and understand them. They generate about half the oxygen in the atmosphere per year as all land plants do. “PHYTOPLANKTON” also forms the basis of almost every marine food web. In short, they make most other marine life possible.
Through photosynthesis, these organisms convert inorganic carbon in the atmosphere and seawater into organic compounds, making them an essential part of the Earth’s carbon cycle. Because they take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they sink when they die. They carry this atmospheric carbon into the deep ocean, making “PHYTOPLANKTON” an important factor in the climate system. “PHYTOPLANKTON” growth is often limited by a lack of iron in the ocean. As a result, many environmentalists are considering plans to fertilize big areas of the ocean with iron to promote “PHYTOPLANKTON” blooms that would transport large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean.
“PHYTOPLANKTON” is also important to other ocean biogeochemical cycles. They take in, transform, and recycle elements needed by other organisms and help cycle elements between species in the ocean. Photosynthetic bacteria are especially important in the nutrient-deficient open ocean, where they scavenge and release rare vitamins and other micronutrients that help sustain other marine life.
Some “PHYTOPLANKTON”s have a direct effect on humans and other animals. Fish and shellfish can be suffocated by dense blooms of some organisms that can deplete coastal waters of oxygen. Other species produce toxins that can cause illness or death among humans and even whales that either come into contact with the toxins or eat shellfish that accumulate the toxins. Such harmful algal blooms (HABs) cause significant economic losses each year in the seafood industry and tourist communities, and scientists are working to understand the causes of these blooms and to develop ways to predict and prevent them. Huh.
