ABSTRACT
Introduction Marine phytoplankton are often referred to as the ‘grass of the ocean’, since they form the productive basis on which most animal life in the oceans is ultimately dependent, be it a herbivorous zooplankton consumer, a top carnivore, or a benthic deposit feeder. ‘Phytoplankton’ is a collective term to describe the single-celled microscopic algae (they may also form chains or clumps of cells), that float in the surface, well-illuminated waters of the sea. When conditions are optimum for their rapid growth, or if more dispersed cells are aggregated by some mechanism, such as the fronts described later, planktonic micro-algae become sufficiently abundant to colour the sea; this phenomenon is often referred to as a plankton ‘bloom’.
