BY THEEVASHINI SUGUMARAN
THE first thing that strikes our mind when we speak about oxygen are trees but the fact is 70% of the Earth’s oxygen is produced by marine plants while rainforests only produce about 28% of the oxygen we breathe.
Who is the hero in the ocean that produces oxygen? The real hero is phytoplankton, a microscopic marine alga that lives in watery environments. The word Phytoplankton derived from the Greek words phyto (plant) and plankton (made to wander or drift). One type of phytoplankton, Prochlorococcus, releases countless tons of oxygen into the atmosphere.
[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”block” ihc_mb_who=”unreg” ihc_mb_template=”3″ ]Similar to other green plants, phytoplankton also has the green pigment, chlorophyll to capture sunlight. However, they face challenges to obtain sunlight because they need to exist on the surface of the ocean. Thus when the sunlight and nutrients are readily available, phytoplankton populations grow explosively and the phenomenon is known as a bloom. Blooms in the ocean may cover hundreds of square kilometers and are easily visible since they are so dense and changes the colour of water in which they live. A bloom may last several weeks, but the life span of any individual phytoplankton is rarely more than a few days. Unfortunately, phytoplankton is under threat due to climate change because they prefer cooler water.[/ihc-hide-content]
