Book Review - Plankton: A Worldwide Guide - Princeton University Press

      I suspect that I am not unlike many others when I confess that I "knew" what plankton are - sort of- but didn't really know much about them at all, and gave them less thought than I should. I understood their role in oceanic trophic levels, but I was certainly ignorant of their stunning diversity, and the inter-relationship between small and large organisms in this amazing cast of characters.

     One of the greatest pleasures of all for me is to expand my knowledge of nature and to understand the synergistic character of the phenology of life, where ultimately everything links to everything else. Thus it was with pleasure, and with an elevated sense of anticipation that I came to this book.

    Oh, my word! How much did I learn!

     The ecology of plankton is rooted in countless millions of years of evolution, with lifestyles and adaptations uniquely geared to precise circumstances. Their strategies for feeding - and providing food for others - vary greatly from species to species, yet each step on this trophic staircase is vital to the entire health of the marine ecosystem. Different methods of reproduction are selected by different organisms; their migrations are dictated by ocean currents as they drift through the vast expanses of the seas of the world, sometimes forming algal blooms familiar to many residents of coastal areas.

     There are so many different species of plankton, with an intriguing suite of names - dinoflagellates, foraminifera, ostracods, radiolarians - and names as prosaic as European Eel (brought to the brink of extinction by overfishing), sea snails, and jellyfish.

     Plankton are universally beautiful, sometimes in bizarre forms that could inspire the hallucinations of a psychedelic dream!

     Marine ecosystems which are fuelled by plankton, regulate the planet's climate. That much we understand, but the total impact is unknown since it is difficult to study marine biomes. 

     What we do know is that anthropogenic activity is affecting the oceans in myriad ways that are universally deleterious to their health, and has the potential to affect our food supply, and the amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere; our very existence, in fact. Ocean acidification is changing the pH of the oceans, overfishing depletes stocks without regard for their recovery, mineral extraction that would destroy entire marine ecosystems is contemplated, organochlorine pollution persists and plastic pollution is at a level that defies belief, yet continues to increase.

     Sadly, we humans never seem to learn from past errors, no matter how egregious, and in an ongoing flirtation with folly, we all too frequently fail to elect principled leaders who are willing to tackle the problem head-on, for the benefit of humankind, and generations to come, without regard to short-term political advantage.

     This is a great book, well conceived, brilliantly narrated and illustrated, and I confer on it my unequivocal recommendation. 

Plankton: A Worldwide Guide - Princeton University Press

Tom Jackson and Jennifer Parker; edited by Andrew Hirst

Hardcover - US$29.95 - ISBN: 9780691255996

224 pages - 8.25 x 9.5 inches (20.63 x 23.75 cm) 

250 colour illustrations 

Publication date: 09 April, 2024