Plankton are vital for our lives, they create half of the oxygen we breathe.
The abundant bird populations of Morecambe Bay are obvious to any (human) visitor, but these relatively large and easily visible animals are dependent upon the presence of enormous numbers of very small and therefore unnoticed organisms.
These are the plankton
Most plankton are so small that they are only visible through a magnifying lens or a microscope. However, they occur in huge numbers. It is estimated that a bucket of sea water contains several hundred thousand of these microscopic plants and animals.
The sea is plankton soup.
The plants and animals of the plankton are some of the most common but least noticed life forms on the planet. They are the basis of marine food chains and are the life source of the oceans. Plankton are essential to the health of the whole marine ecosystem.
Plankton are so numerous and so sensitive to environmental variation, that fluctations in their distribution and frequency are used as indicators of climate change.
The name ‘plankton’ means passively drifting or wandering.
Plankton are global drifters, oceanic wanderers, aquatic nomads.
They are miniature maritime hobos.
They go with the flow.
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JOHN ANGUS 