Voyage Adds More Than One Million Species Of Plankton To Ocean Pasture Biodiversity

Voyage Adds More Than One Million Species Of Plankton To Ocean Pasture Biodiversity

Just a couple of years ago common wisdom was that there might be 30,000 species of plankton in the surface ocean. The expedition described in this BBC News item reports it found more than a million species of plankton in a single voyage.

Plankton discoveries vastly increase ocean biodiversity

26 September 2012 Last updated at 02:22 

A team of scientists will detail their discovery of more than one million new species of plankton during a two-and-a-half-year, 70,000 mile, expedition.

The team from the Tara research vessel, whose mission was to study the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems and biodiversity, say 90% of the species they detected were previously unknown.


Watch the amazing news broadcast here…