ORCID

Abstract

Plankton, a diverse group of aquatic organisms, make Earth livable, regulate aquatic life, and provide benefits to human societies such as access to clean water, food security, and well-being. They also support economies and inspire biotechnological innovations. This article aims to raise awareness of the value of plankton to humanity and serves as an informative guide for aquatic professionals, policymakers, and anyone interested in plankton. We present the value of plankton across six themes of human interest: biogeochemistry; ecology; climate; the evolution of science; economy; and culture, recreation, and well-being. Guided by the 2022 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services values assessment, we introduce the six themes under the Life Framework of Values to offer a comprehensive summary of the significance of plankton to humanity. In addition, we provide examples of plankton variables used in policy frameworks and recommendations for enhancing understanding of their value through long-term sustainable research and monitoring.

Publication Date

2025-09-01

Publication Title

BioScience

Volume

75

Issue

9

ISSN

0006-3568

Acceptance Date

2025-04-11

Deposit Date

2025-08-20

Funding

This article stems from the discussions during the four online plankton workshops organized by the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network in 2020 and 2021 (Grigoratou et al. 2022).We thank all workshop participants for their valuable contributions and insights shared during the workshops. We thank Erica J. H. Head, Kristian Curran, and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and insightful comments that enhanced the quality of our article. We dedicate this work to all plankton researchers: those who have gone before, those who are currently engaged, and those who will contribute in the future. We would also like to dedicate the article to all those passionate about plankton and inspire them to continue exploring and creating awareness for the magical world of these important organisms. This article has been supported by the NSF project WARMEM (grant no. OCE1851866) and the HORIZON Europe projects EU4OceanObs2.0 and BioEcoOcean (grant no. 101136748) to MG. SMD was funded by the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research grant no. OCE-2322676. AM-G was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as part of the marine arm of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment program (NC34 Pelagic program PelCap) and United Kingdom National Environmental Research Council (NERC) for support through the NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship Scheme (grant no. NE/R002738/1). GA was funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada grant no. 04728. S-DA was funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under grant no. ANR-22-CE02-0023-1 (project TRAITZOO) and Horizon Europe RIA under grant no. 101081273. DB was funded by the TC Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change and carried out by T B? ITAK-MAM-Integrated Marine Pollution Monitoring Program. BB was funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada under grant no. 06844. BC was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, through grant no. RPG-2020 389. JDE was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery through grants no. DP190102293 and no. DP230102359. TG was funded by the Long-Term Ecological Research Program Brazilian semiarid coast PELD CSB (grant no. 442337/2020 5). RG was funded by the European Union s Next Generation through the Spanish Ministry of Universities (Mar a Zambrano program). TG-H was funded by the Israel Science Foundation through grant no. 1655/21. SH was funded by the Strategic Science Investment Funding to NIWA by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment. RH was supported by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Namibia. CL received funding from the Horizon Europe Framework project C-BLUES (project no. 101137844) and the FRIPRO project PELAGIC (project no. 334996) funded by the Norwegian Research Council. MM was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. EM was funded through the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) and the MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas with grants from NASA (no. 80NSSC18K0318, no. 80NSSC23K0047, and no. 80NSSC23K1779). This work was also supported by the NOAA award no. NA23NOS4780271 as part of the Florida Regional Ecosystems Stressors Collaborative Assessment project. FM-K was supported through the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network grants from NASA (grants no. NNX14AP62A, no. 80NSSC20K0017, and no. 80NSSC22K1779), NOAA IOOS (grant no. NA19NOS0120199), NOAA Climate Program Office (grant no. NA22OAR4310561), and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS/IOOS cooperative agreement no. NA16NOS0120018). AP was supported by the EU Horizon Europe projects BioEcoOcean (grant no. 101136748) and SEA-Quester (grant no. 101136480). AJP was funded by the EU Horizon OceanICU project (grant no. 101083922) and UK Research and Innovation under the UK government s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant no. 10054454). JFS was supported by projects no. PIBAA-CONICET 28720210100721CO and no. PIN1- UNCo 04/P007. RS was supported by Defra, Environment Agency, in the United Kingdom. SV was supported by Trond Mohn Starting Grand no. TMS2018REK02. This article stems from the discussions during the four online plankton workshops organized by the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network in 2020 and 2021 (Grigoratou et al. ). We thank all workshop participants for their valuable contributions and insights shared during the workshops. We thank Erica J. H. Head, Kristian Curran, and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and insightful comments that enhanced the quality of our article. We dedicate this work to all plankton researchers: those who have gone before, those who are currently engaged, and those who will contribute in the future. We would also like to dedicate the article to all those passionate about plankton and inspire them to continue exploring and creating awareness for the magical world of these important organisms. This article has been supported by the NSF project WARMEM (grant no. OCE-1851866) and the HORIZON Europe projects EU4OceanObs2.0 and BioEcoOcean (grant no. 101136748) to MG. SMD was funded by the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research grant no. OCE-2322676. AM-G was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as part of the marine arm of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment program (NC34 Pelagic program PelCap) and United Kingdom National Environmental Research Council (NERC) for support through the NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship Scheme (grant no. NE/R002738/1). GA was funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada grant no. 04728. S-DA was funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under grant no. ANR-22-CE02-0023-1 (project TRAITZOO) and Horizon Europe RIA under grant no. 101081273. DB was funded by the TC Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change and carried out by TÜBİTAK-MAM-Integrated Marine Pollution Monitoring Program. BB was funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada under grant no. 06844. BC was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, through grant no. RPG-2020–389. JDE was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery through grants no. DP190102293 and no. DP230102359. TG was funded by the Long-Term Ecological Research Program Brazilian semiarid coast—PELD CSB (grant no. 442337/2020–5). RG was funded by the European Union’s Next Generation through the Spanish Ministry of Universities (María Zambrano program). TG-H was funded by the Israel Science Foundation through grant no. 1655/21. SH was funded by the Strategic Science Investment Funding to NIWA by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment. RH was supported by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Namibia. CL received funding from the Horizon Europe Framework project C-BLUES (project no. 101137844) and the FRIPRO project PELAGIC (project no. 334996) funded by the Norwegian Research Council. MM was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. EM was funded through the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) and the MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas with grants from NASA (no. 80NSSC18K0318, no. 80NSSC23K0047, and no. 80NSSC23K1779). This work was also supported by the NOAA award no. NA23NOS4780271 as part of the Florida Regional Ecosystems Stressors Collaborative Assessment project. FM-K was supported through the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network grants from NASA (grants no. NNX14AP62A, no. 80NSSC20K0017, and no. 80NSSC22K1779), NOAA IOOS (grant no. NA19NOS0120199), NOAA Climate Program Office (grant no. NA22OAR4310561), and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS/IOOS cooperative agreement no. NA16NOS0120018). AP was supported by the EU Horizon Europe projects BioEcoOcean (grant no. 101136748) and SEA-Quester (grant no. 101136480). AJP was funded by the EU Horizon OceanICU project (grant no. 101083922) and UK Research and Innovation under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant no. 10054454). JFS was supported by projects no. PIBAA-CONICET 28720210100721CO and no. PIN1-UNCo 04/P007. RS was supported by Defra, Environment Agency, in the United Kingdom. SV was supported by Trond Mohn Starting Grand no. TMS2018REK02.

Keywords

biodiversity, biogeochemistry, climate, ecology, policy

First Page

706

Last Page

721

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