Planet Ocean Page #2

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They occur between the surface

and the first hundred meters,

to where the rays of the sun

can penetrate the ocean.

The tiny algae that appear

form an immense marine prairie

floating in the water.

The biomass produced every year

represents half

of the vegetation on earth.

Some microalgae

resemble distant galaxies.

They are protists -

unicellular, very old organisms.

Most consists of only a cell

surrounded by a silicate

or calcium carbonate skeleton.

At this level,

The distinction

between plant and animal is unclear.

Some of these green cells

have limbs that they push upstream,

to increase

the surface facing the sun..

All these microalgae consume carbon

and provide oxygen in return.

Half of the air we breathe,

comes from the microalgae.

The ocean is the blue heart of the planet.

The plant bloom

trigger another explosion of life,

of billions of herbivorous animals

that feed on the sea prairie.

These animals are only a

few millimeters in size, often even smaller.

They are classified as jellyfish,

crustaceans, cells, shellfish, larvae,

thousands of groups of species.

The most important of these

are the innumerable krill,

the small shrimp that graze algea

day and night.

And copepods, water fleas,

which are kind of jumping

with their limbs to move forward.

The copepods are pursued

by carnivores in the plankton,

especially by arrowhead predators

who are voracious

and armed with teeth of silicon.

Every moment of life

is an act of survival.

Prey and predators alternate

constantly

and there is always a bigger

predator to swallow the previous ones.

This huge food chain nourishes all

organisms, from small to large.

The plankton is an open book

where we can read

the history of the ocean.

For 3 billion years

life evolved here

in this sea prairie.

Some very old species,

as the gelatinous animals,

can only occur in the ocean.

In perfect harmony

with the fluid environment

they possess an elastic body

which they simultaneously

can absorb food and move.

Sometimes, they cling to each other

and form a huge chain making it

easier to move along with the flow.

It looks chaotic,

but every living creature

is organized down to the smallest detail.

These explosions of life

eventually disappear,

consumed by lack of food sources

or eradicated by an invisible enemy,

an attack by a virus.

Billions of viruses,

whose biological role is

in the regulation of any explosion of life.

Nature does not support excess.

At the end of the winter

mackerel have left their hibernation

in the depths of the ocean.

They come to the surface

looking for the sea prairie.

As many fish species,

they feed on this invisible plankton,

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