Humans live in the world of plankton. These tiny creatures spread across the ocean, covering nearly three-quarters of the planets, making them one of the most abundant life on Earth.
But the warm world is disrupting plankton and threatening the entire marine food chain that is built on them.
A year ago, NASA launched a satellite that provides the most detailed view of the diversity and distribution of phytoplankton. That insight should help scientists understand the changing dynamics of ocean life.
“Do you like breathing? Do you like eating?” says Jeremy Weldell, lead scientist in a satellite program called Pace, which represents the “plankton, aerosols, cloud and ocean ecosystem.”
Historically, research from the ship only takes limited snapshots in time and gives us a glimpse into the ever-changing ocean. The appearance of satellites has drawn a richer picture, but there is still only a limited number of things to look at glasses with a green filter.
“You know it's a garden, you know it's clean, you know it's a plant, but you don't know which plant,” explained Ivona Cetinic, a marine scientist at NASA. Pace satellite effectively removes the filter and ultimately reveals all the colours in the garden, she said. “It's like seeing all the flowers in the ocean.”
These flowers are phytoplankton, small aquatic algae, and bacteria that photosynthesize directly from energy from the sun. They are eaten by zooplankton, the smallest animal in the ocean, which feeds fish and large creatures.
