Plankton (Photo : REUTERS/MELISSA DUHAIME)
A new study made by an international team of researchers discovered a world of diversity in plankton and its importance in the food chain.
Tara Oceans Consortium researchers said that their research is the most complete description of planktonic organisms to date. One of the main authors of the study Dr. Chris Bowler of National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris said that he and his colleagues have managed to come up with the most comprehensive description of planktonic organisms ever.
Planktonic organisms are very minute in size; they comprise as much as 90 percent of the overall mass of marine life in oceans. Plankton is a very wide and somewhat diverse group of marine organisms which thrive in water columns of the ocean. They play a very important role in the food chain and responsible for producing almost 50 percent of the oxygen present in the air.
During a 3-year long global expedition, they have gathered samples including 150,000 single-celled creatures and plants, 5,000 new viruses and 35,000 bacteria species.
Lead author Dr. Chris Bowler of National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris and his colleagues have come to know that a large share of the tiny oceanic organisms is sensitive to temperature. Usually, this trait can be seen in the newly discovered bacteria species. Yahoo News reported that these organisms are far more complex than scientists ever imagined.
Researchers found out that of the species are new to Science. According to The Hoop News, the latest study helped the researchers to have a detailed catalog of the protozoa, bacteria and viruses present in the ocean globally.
"This is the largest DNA sequencing effort ever done for ocean science: analyses revealed around 40 million genes, the vast majority of which are new to science, thus hinting towards a much broader biodiversity of plankton than previously known," said researcher Patrick Wincker, from the French National Sequencing Center, Genoscope.
