Plankton and Producers

Plankton are microscopic organisms that may be plants, may be animals or may be a combination of the two. Many are single celled organisms. Others are very simple organisms of several cells. Most need a microscope to be seen.

In studying pond water, river water, and ocean water, you would expect to find many of these organisms. However, they are the start of the food chain and they have been consumed. They multiply rapidly and fuel the beginning of many a food chain.

Sometimes when these organisms overreproduce, they cause the food chain to come to a halt. Their overabundance clog the gills of fish which die from a lack of oxygen and a huge fish kill occurs. You can have too much of a good thing.

Which leads back to balance. There is always a balance in nature. That balance is naturally good. We tend to have the opinion that nature has the capacity to bounce back. And it does. It is just that there is a new normal which may or may not include native species to that environment.

Many think well so what. The new normal functions. That is true. But it is something that is lost as a result. Could that plant have a medicine that could produce a pharmaceutical? Will the new normal produce a drier climate or will sea levels rise and there is less land for people to live much less farm for food. We don't really know the answer. But we can make predictions on what has happened in the past.

My father was a veteran of World War II. He talked about how much oil and gas they dumped in the ocean and the ocean was able to handle it. The world's population of humans has 7.4 billion people compared to having 2.2 billion people in 1945. A three fold increase means there is a greater demand on the Earth's productivity which are dependent on diversity and healthy ecosystems.

Meanwhile innocuous plankton are busy providing food the way they should in a balanced ecosystem.