The Plankton is a series of small organisms that live on the surface and under the surface of lakes, rivers, ponds and oceans of the entire planet. His name comes from the Greek word plankton [planktón]: ‘What wanders. ‘ The plankton is not at all, but is dragged through the tides, the currents and other forces that determine their destination.
Plankton is an important food source for many large and small oceanic creatures. They also play a crucial role in the absorption of carbon dioxide and oxygen production in the ocean.
Without Plankton, life as we know, it would be very different. These small organisms produce much of the oxygen that we breathe and form the basis of the food chain of the marine ecosystem.
The Plankton controls it again, feeds the seas and forms life on earth
They remain unnoticed, but everything depends on it. The plankton, the food of the ocean, controls the climate, feeds the seas and forms life on earth. On the Costa Azul scientists rush to reveal their secrets before the silence of their decline echoes over the entire planet.
On a sunny morning off the coast of Villefranche-sur-Mer, the Sagitta III Surca the cobalt waters of the Mediterranean Sea, leaving the quiet ports and the terraces surrounded by pines of the French Costa Azul. The scientific ship, baptized with the name of a frightening zooplankton with jaws in the form of hook, goes at full speed to a lonely yellow buoy that swings sea inside.
In the distance, the tourist city shines as an mirroring of pastel -colored villas and churches that cling to the cliffs. But on board the Sagitta III, romance ends on the board. Lionel Guidi, a local scientist from the Oceanographic Laboratory or Villefranche (LOV), looks at the sea with an intensity that is practiced.
Plankton
An experienced crew goes around that exactly, under the iron fist by Captain Jean-Yves Carval. “The plankton is fragile,” warns the sailor, who has been leaving for searchers and now scientific ships for almost 50 years. “If you go too fast, you compote.”
The Boot Aminora de Mars upon arrival in La Boya, a sampling place where Guidi and its LOV colleagues have collected marine data on a daily basis.
Under coverage, mechanical head of the ship, Christophe Kieger, prepares a large winch that registers a cable of 3000 meters. This is implemented, which sends a thin mesh network, every pore no wider than a salt grain, which drifts to the depths. Slowly it sinks up to 76 meters.
Minutes later the network comes to the surface loaded with a gelatinous brown dye.
“There is life!” Anthéa Bourhis calls, a 28 -year -old Breton technique, while the content is carefully transferred to a plastic cube.
Indeed, that catch contains more than sea and sludge water. It is the raw material of the past of the planet, and perhaps of his future.
Plankton is the heart of the ocean
These small organisms absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen and Maintain the entire marine food chain. Without them, life as we know it would not exist.
The plankton cannot swim against the current
It is not a single being, but a huge cast of marine nomads, all united by a function: They can’t swim against the current. They float with tides and swirls and follow invisible movements that rule their lives. Some are no larger than a dust spot; Others, such as jellyfish, can be more than a meter wide.
There are two main types. Those who benefit from sunlight: phytoplanktonMicroscopic marine plants that perform photosynthesis, such as earthly nature and that have produced more than half of the oxygen throughout history that we breathe. AND Those feeding: ZooplanktonSmall animals that feed on their vegetables, hunting each other and becoming dams for fishing, whales and sea birds.
Scientists have been following these beings for decades in the Oceanographic Laboratory of Villefranche. His daily samples, made on a few miles off the coast, have led to one of the continuous plankton records in the world.
And that record now shows signs of stress.
“In our observation center, The surface temperature has risen by approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius in the last 50 years“, Lionel Guidi explains a news.” We have one General descent of the primary production of phytoplankton“.
The consequences can be of great reach. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine ecosystem and a decrease in the number could activate a waterfall effectDisturbing zooplankton, fish populations and oceanic biodiversity as a whole.
It could also weakens your power to absorb carbon dioxideremove the from the atmosphere and transport to the depths, which scientists call “the biological bomb”, one of the Natural climate controllers of the earth.
Everything starts with the plankton
Back to the LOV, with the Sagitta III that rests in his berth, Lionel Guidi points to the monster of the day. “Everything starts with Plankton,” says the scientist, who conducted Marien research in Texas and Hawaii before arrival in Villefranche.
In the meantime, Anthéa Bourhis, the young technology, has set up a white laboratory jacket and is inclined in the morning catch. Set the sample in Formaldehyde, a chemical, which will save the zooplankton but will also kill it. “When they move, the scanner spoils,” he explains.
Once immobile, small animals are introduced in a scanner. Slowly the shapes flourish on the Bourhis screen, because some incredibly graceful, translucent and similar to shrimp seems floating.
“We have a bit very handsome,” he says smiling.
Starts to transfer digital images to one Database managed by artificial intelligence that is able to classify zooplankton By groups, families and species.
“They have limbs everywhere,” adds Lionel Guidi. “Show Arms in all directions.”
One of these beings of the marine depths, called Phronima, even inspired the monster of the film Alien, by Ridley Scott, from 1979. “You look at the microscope,” says Guidi, “and there is a whole world.”
From science to politics
LOV research in the long term is important because it records trends those years and even decades and help scientists distinguish the natural cycles of the changes caused by the weather.
‘If we explain that, If there is no more plankton, there is no life in the ocean anymore. And if there is no more life in the ocean, life on land will not last much, then suddenly people are much more interested why it is important to protect the plankton, ”says Jean-Lop Irisson, another LOV Plankton specialist.
Next week, just 15 minutes from the coast, the city of A series Will host the third United Nations Conference on Oceans (Unoc3)A five -day top that scientists, diplomats, activists and entrepreneurs will bring together to draw the course of marine conservation.
One of the priorities of the meeting is to promote the commitment “30 for 30”, which consists of Protect 30% of the oceans by 2030, and approach the ratification of the Historische Hoogzee treaty or Bbnj -agreement Unpleasant Protection of life in international waters.
Guidi emphasized the urgency of these efforts led by the UN: “All this should be thought of with people who are able to make laws, but on the basis of scientific reasoning.”
He does not intend to be the one who writes the policy, but he knows where science fits. “We give scientific results about; We have proof of a phenomenon. They are not opinions, they are made. “
So, in Villefranche, Lionel Guidi, Anthéa Bourhis and Captain Jean-Yves Carval will stem their work from the sea, capturing in pixels, counting its members and sharing their data with scientists from all over the world. In this way not only mapped an endangered ocean, but also the invisible threads that unite life itself.