engleski

Observations from the Invisible Forest: the diversity of marine phytoplankton

Marine phytoplankton are tiny, microscopic plant-like organisms found mostly in the sunlit layer of the water column. Although minute in size, they are immensely significant players in the Earth’s ecosphere. These organisms are by far the most abundant and the most taxonomically and genetically diverse organisms in the marine realm. They play a critical role in regulating the Earth’s climate, almost as though their photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide on a scale equivalent to land plants. Some of this carbon is carried to the deep ocean when phyto cells die and some is transferred to other organisms, since the microalgae are the foundation of the aquatic food webs, feeding everything from microscopic, animal-like zooplankton to huge mammals. The phytoplankton are the only ocean life form that can be assessed at all scales – from a drop of seawater, in situ sensors on autonomous platforms/ships, to global satellite observations due to the presence of pigments such as chlorophyll a. Future efforts are focused towards an integrated approach that combines conventional analyses of discrete samples through microscopy, flow cytometry and molecular identification methods with optical tools, deployed in situ, and from remote sensing platforms. The talk will present phytoplankton biological and functional diversity over the size spectra via the most representative examples, together with an overview of different tools used in the research of particular phyto groups.

phytoplankton; marine; sensors

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