Explorers Inventory Hard-to-See Sea Life: Tiny but Mighty Microbes, Plankton, Larvae, Burrowers — Keys to Earth’s Food and Respiratory Systems

Tiny Sea CreatureCensus of Marine Life
Washington DC

18-Apr-2010

Microbial mat the size of Greece found on oxygen-starved South American seafloor; Scientists puzzle out Neptune’s riotous diversity of tiny creatures;
“In no other ocean realm has discovery been as extensive”;
Explorers yet to find any lifeless place on Earth below 150
Release of historic global ocean

Ocean explorers are puzzling out Nature’s purpose behind an astonishing variety of tiny ocean creatures like microbes and zooplankton animals – each perhaps a ticket-holder in life’s lottery, awaiting conditions that will allow it to prosper and dominate.

The inventory and study of the hardest-to-see sea species — tiny microbes, zooplankton, larvae and burrowers in the sea bed, which together underpin almost all other life on Earth — is the focus of four of 14 field projects of the Census of Marine Life.

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