Recent studies show that there is substantial standing genetic variation in natural populations of planktonic organisms, which provides the raw material for natural selection.

UNESCO: THEMES

Planktonic animals become disoriented or die.

CNN: We are all Gulf victims now

These larvae feed on planktonic algae.

ECONOMIST: A new study puts numbers to the Great Barrier Reef��s decline

After sampling waters from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans at all latitudes, they found that the amount of AAPB in the water is controlled mainly by the level of planktonic algae in the region, rather than by the amount of light.

ECONOMIST: Bacteria and climate change: Invisible carbon pumps | The

Even the most potentially disturbing suggestion, which involves fertilising the oceans with iron in order to promote the growth of planktonic algae (in the hope that they would sink to the seabed, taking their carbon with them), can be covered by the London Convention on marine pollution, which regulates dumping at sea, and has already addressed itself to research in the area.

ECONOMIST: Geoengineering