Vincent Doumeizel

massively because there are a lot of them.

They represent, as you say, 90% of the biomass in the ocean.

So they sink a lot of carbon when they sink.

But if they are replaced by plankton that stays at the surface, as it is the case right now because of our human activities, so they tend to be replaced for the last years by plankton that stays on the surface.

then the carbon will be released in the atmosphere and will not be sunk in the deep ocean.

And that's a big, big difference because then we are talking about 30% of the global emissions that are currently absorbed by the ocean that may not be anymore.

And maybe the ocean will start to emit carbon as such.

And then that will be the end of the game for all of the existing ecosystem because

None of us can survive this.

I mean, you can become vegan and take your bike and do whatever you want.

I mean, no one will reverse the magnitude of that change.

So that's why it's so important to keep the plankton communities as they are.

Because if they change, the rest of the ecosystem will change and we will disappear.

So what has changed that has allowed the plankton to stay on the surface?

Why is the plankton staying on the surface and not sinking now?

because this type of plankton, they have no shells.

They do not create any shells.

Why have they suddenly flourished?

Well, the different type of plankton domination, you know, because of all the anthropic activities, like releasing nutrients, releasing phosphate, warming up the climate.

Right, and so the dominant species at the surface, they've thrived in this new environment as opposed to... Yeah, exactly, it's just different.