Phytoplankton are microscopic, photosynthetic organisms inhabiting the sunlit (euphotic) layers of aquatic ecosystems, forming the base of most marine and freshwater food webs. Predominantly composed of cyanobacteria, diatoms, dinoflagellates, coccolithophores, and green algae, they fix inorganic carbon via oxygenic photosynthesis, driving primary production and biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, and trace metals. Their biomass and productivity are tightly regulated by light availability, nutrient concentrations, temperature, and hydrodynamic mixing. Phytoplankton dynamics underpin global carbon export to the deep ocean via the biological pump and strongly influence atmospheric CO₂ levels and climate feedbacks.
The Baltic Sea has been under pressure for decades: Although phosphorus and nitrogen river loads, the main cause for its eutrophication, have been significantly reduced, adverse effects such as algal blooms and oxygen depletion ...
Environment
Feb 16, 2026
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The Mediterranean Sea is rapidly changing under ongoing climate change. In the eastern basin, tropicalization is already well documented and driven by a combination of strong warming and the influx of tropical species through ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 15, 2026
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154
For many years, the deep ocean has been seen as a nutrient-poor environment where microbes living in the water survive on very limited resources. But new research from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) challenges that ...
Ecology
Feb 9, 2026
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21
A group of ocean bacteria long considered perfectly adapted to life in nutrient-poor waters may be more vulnerable to environmental change than scientists realized. The bacteria, known as SAR11, dominate surface seawater ...
Ecology
Jan 30, 2026
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117
CO2 that has been absorbed and accumulated in fresh water areas like lakes and reservoirs—is receiving attention for its potential contributions to achieving a carbon neutral society. Kobe University is a hub for freshwater ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 23, 2026
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18
An international team of scientists from South Africa, Canada, France and the UK has uncovered fossil evidence of a tiny ecosystem that helped kick-start the recovery of Earth's oceans after a global mass extinction.
Ecology
Jan 16, 2026
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197
Newly published interdisciplinary research led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and University of Maryland shows that viral infection of blue-green algae in the ocean stimulates productivity in the ecosystem and ...
Ecology
Jan 12, 2026
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21
Single-celled algae in the ocean known as coccolithophores play an important role in the marine carbon cycle when they take up bicarbonate from seawater to build their shells. Coccolithophore numbers have been increasing ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 5, 2026
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14
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have decoded the nuclear genome of Amorphochlora amoebiformis, a unicellular marine alga belonging to the chlorarachniophyte group.
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 19, 2025
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17
When humans need more Vitamin B12—a nutrient that makes healthy red blood cells and turns food into energy—we can get it by taking a supplement or eating fish. But what about ocean life, including the seafood we eat? Are ...
Ecology
Dec 18, 2025
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20
