Sciences marines : recherche et développement

Abstrait

Plankton Bio-prospecting in the Ocean

Robert De Riso

Our planet’s oceans cover most of its area and are crucial to maintaining the biosphere’s balance. For instance, 50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from microscopic photosynthetic creatures, and the ocean is where we get most of our food and mineral resources. We must focus on the sea in order to identify new options for a sustainable future during this period of ecological crises and significant social change. Surprisingly, the planktonic compartment, which consists of zooplankton, phytoplankton, bacteria, and viruses, constitutes 95% of marine biomass, despite the fact that we are overusing many marine resources, especially fisheries, and the amount of its variety is still largely unknown and underutilized. As a result, plankton’s promise as a bio resource for humans is mostly unrealized. Planktonic creatures have enormous prospects because of their varied evolutionary histories, including new supplies of food, medicine, and renewable energy as well as long-term approaches to reducing climate change. Numerous bioactive extracts and purified compounds have already been found in research programmes aiming to use culture collections of marine microorganisms as well as the vast riches of marine planktonic biodiversity in the oceans.