Sir David Attenborough – Speaking about phytoplankton at University College London in 2018…

“If you said that plankton, the phytoplankton, the oxygen-producing plankton in the oceans is more important to our atmosphere than the whole of the rainforest, which I think is true, people would be astonished!”

“They are an essential element in the whole cycle of oxygen production and carbon dioxide and all the rest of it.”
 “Phytoplankton may be tiny but they are the basis of all life in the ocean – feeding everything from baby fish to great whales – and they help keep our seas, and indeed our whole planet healthy.”
    –  Sir David Attenborough

What is Marine Phytoplankton?

Phytoplankton serve as the base of the aquatic food web, providing an essential ecological function for all aquatic life.
Most are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye. However, when present in high enough numbers, some varieties may be noticeable as colored patches on the water suphytoplankton seen from spacerface due to the presence of chlorophyll within their cells and accessory pigments in some species.

Incredible Phytoplankton Facts

Microscopic marine phytoplankton plants live in the surface layer of lakes, oceans or other water because they get energy through photosynthesis and need the light available in that area. They have excellent photosynthetic efficiency and are about three times more effective than other plants in using light. They convert water and light energy into powerful nutrients and produce about 90 percent of the earth’s supply of oxygen and absorbs most of the carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere, which helps to keep the ecosystem balanced and the planet healthy.

Marine phytoplankton contain 400 times more energy than any other known plant. According to an article in the Yale University Journal of Marine Research, the earth’s phytoplankton store 63 billion kilowatts of power. Therefore, are a significant bio-energy resource as well as an important source of nutrition.

Base of the Food Chain

The earth’s longest living and largest fish and animals eat plankton, and there are about 300 known species of the plant. Phytoplankton is at the base of the marine food chain, so nearly every living creature in the ocean relies directly or indirectly on this remarkable source of nutrition for its survival.