The essential role of phytoplankton in ecosystems

NARRATOR: Phytoplankton, the plantlike community of plankton, is comprised of single-celled algae and bacteria such as diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophores. These organisms perform an essential role in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Like plants, they produce oxygen through photosynthesis, providing aquatic animals, as well as those found on land, with the oxygen necessary for respiration. Phytoplankton also make up the first step in the marine food chain and thus serve as food sources for smaller sea organisms, which in turn sustain larger ones. Human beings also rely on phytoplankton to supply the oxygen we breathe and to feed the fish we catch and eat.