Phytoplankton serve as the base of the aquatic food web, providing an essential ecological function for all aquatic life. Under future conditions of anthropogenic warming and ocean acidification, changes in phytoplankton mortality due to changes in rates of zooplankton grazing may be significant. One of the many food chains in the ocean – remarkable due to the small number of links – is that of phytoplankton sustaining krill (a crustacean similar to a tiny shrimp), which in turn sustain baleen whales.
Phytoplankton serve as the base of the aquatic food web, providing an essential ecological function for all aquatic life Under future conditions of anthropogenic warming and ocean acidification, changes in phytoplankton mortality due to changes in rates of zooplankton grazing may be significant. One of the many food chains in the ocean – remarkable due to the small number of links – is that of phytoplankton sustaining krill (a crustacean similar to a tiny shrimp), which in turn sustain baleen whales.