The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity

Maria Grigoratou; Susanne Menden-Deuer; Abigail McQuatters-Gollop; George Arhonditsis; Luis Felipe Artigas; Sakina-Dorothée Ayata; Dalida Bedikoğlu; Beatrix E Beisner; Bingzhang Chen; Claire Davies; Lillian Diarra; Owoyemi W Elegbeleye; Jason D Everett; Tatiane M Garcia; Wendy C Gentleman; Rodrigo Javier Gonçalves; Tamar Guy-Haim; Svenja Halfter; Jana Hinners; Richard R Horaeb; Jenny A Huggett; Catherine L Johnson; Maria T Kavanaugh; Ana Lara-Lopez; Christian Lindemann; Celeste López-Abbate; Monique Messié; Klas Ove Möller; Enrique Montes; Frank E Muller-Karger; Aimee Neeley; Yusuf Olaleye; Artur P Palacz; Alex J Poulton; A E Friederike Prowe; Lavenia Ratnarajah; Luzmila Rodríguez; Clara Natalia Rodríguez-Flórez; Aurea Rodriquez-Santiago; Cecile S Rousseaux; Juan Francisco Saad; Ioulia Santi; Alice Soccodato; Rowena Stern; Selina Våge; Ioanna Varkitzi; Anthony Richardson

doi:10.1093/biosci/biaf049

The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity

Maria Grigoratou^*, Susanne Menden-Deuer, Abigail McQuatters-Gollop, George Arhonditsis, Luis Felipe Artigas, Sakina-Dorothée Ayata, Dalida Bedikoğlu, Beatrix E Beisner, Bingzhang Chen, Claire Davies, Lillian Diarra, Owoyemi W Elegbeleye, Jason D Everett, Tatiane M Garcia, Wendy C Gentleman, Rodrigo Javier Gonçalves, Tamar Guy-Haim, Svenja Halfter, Jana Hinners, Richard R HoraebJenny A Huggett, Catherine L Johnson, Maria T Kavanaugh, Ana Lara-Lopez, Christian Lindemann, Celeste López-Abbate, Monique Messié, Klas Ove Möller, Enrique Montes, Frank E Muller-Karger, Aimee Neeley, Yusuf Olaleye, Artur P Palacz, Alex J Poulton, A E Friederike Prowe, Lavenia Ratnarajah, Luzmila Rodríguez, Clara Natalia Rodríguez-Flórez, Aurea Rodriquez-Santiago, Cecile S Rousseaux, Juan Francisco Saad, Ioulia Santi, Alice Soccodato, Rowena Stern, Selina Våge, Ioanna Varkitzi, Anthony Richardson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Mathematics And Statistics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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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.

Original language	English
Article number	biaf049
Pages (from-to)	706-721
Number of pages	16
Journal	BioScience
Volume	75
Issue number	9
Early online date	24 Jun 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf049
Publication status	Published - 5 Sept 2025

Funding

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

ecology
biogeochemistry
climate
policy
biodiversity

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1093/biosci/biaf049Licence: CC BY 4.0

Grigoratou-etal-BioScience-2025-The-immeasurable-value-of-plankton-to-humanityFinal published version, 1.86 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

Grigoratou, M., Menden-Deuer, S., McQuatters-Gollop, A., Arhonditsis, G., Artigas, L. F., Ayata, S.-D., Bedikoğlu, D., Beisner, B. E., Chen, B., Davies, C., Diarra, L., Elegbeleye, O. W., Everett, J. D., Garcia, T. M., Gentleman, W. C., Gonçalves, R. J., Guy-Haim, T., Halfter, S., Hinners, J., ... Richardson, A. (2025). The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity. BioScience, 75(9), 706-721. Article biaf049. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf049

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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.",

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Grigoratou, M, Menden-Deuer, S, McQuatters-Gollop, A, Arhonditsis, G, Artigas, LF, Ayata, S-D, Bedikoğlu, D, Beisner, BE, Chen, B, Davies, C, Diarra, L, Elegbeleye, OW, Everett, JD, Garcia, TM, Gentleman, WC, Gonçalves, RJ, Guy-Haim, T, Halfter, S, Hinners, J, Horaeb, RR, Huggett, JA, Johnson, CL, Kavanaugh, MT, Lara-Lopez, A, Lindemann, C, López-Abbate, C, Messié, M, Möller, KO, Montes, E, Muller-Karger, FE, Neeley, A, Olaleye, Y, Palacz, AP, Poulton, AJ, Prowe, AEF, Ratnarajah, L, Rodríguez, L, Rodríguez-Flórez, CN, Rodriquez-Santiago, A, Rousseaux, CS, Saad, JF, Santi, I, Soccodato, A, Stern, R, Våge, S, Varkitzi, I & Richardson, A 2025, 'The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity', BioScience, vol. 75, no. 9, biaf049, pp. 706-721. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf049

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T1 - The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity

AU - Grigoratou, Maria

AU - Menden-Deuer, Susanne

AU - McQuatters-Gollop, Abigail

AU - Arhonditsis, George

AU - Artigas, Luis Felipe

AU - Ayata, Sakina-Dorothée

AU - Bedikoğlu, Dalida

AU - Beisner, Beatrix E

AU - Chen, Bingzhang

AU - Davies, Claire

AU - Diarra, Lillian

AU - Elegbeleye, Owoyemi W

AU - Everett, Jason D

AU - Garcia, Tatiane M

AU - Gentleman, Wendy C

AU - Gonçalves, Rodrigo Javier

AU - Guy-Haim, Tamar

AU - Halfter, Svenja

AU - Hinners, Jana

AU - Horaeb, Richard R

AU - Huggett, Jenny A

AU - Johnson, Catherine L

AU - Kavanaugh, Maria T

AU - Lara-Lopez, Ana

AU - Lindemann, Christian

AU - López-Abbate, Celeste

AU - Messié, Monique

AU - Möller, Klas Ove

AU - Montes, Enrique

AU - Muller-Karger, Frank E

AU - Neeley, Aimee

AU - Olaleye, Yusuf

AU - Palacz, Artur P

AU - Poulton, Alex J

AU - Prowe, A E Friederike

AU - Ratnarajah, Lavenia

AU - Rodríguez, Luzmila

AU - Rodríguez-Flórez, Clara Natalia

AU - Rodriquez-Santiago, Aurea

AU - Rousseaux, Cecile S

AU - Saad, Juan Francisco

AU - Santi, Ioulia

AU - Soccodato, Alice

AU - Stern, Rowena

AU - Våge, Selina

AU - Varkitzi, Ioanna

AU - Richardson, Anthony

PY - 2025/9/5

Y1 - 2025/9/5

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - ecology

KW - biogeochemistry

KW - climate

KW - policy

KW - biodiversity

U2 - 10.1093/biosci/biaf049

DO - 10.1093/biosci/biaf049

M3 - Article

SN - 0006-3568

VL - 75

SP - 706

EP - 721

JO - BioScience

JF - BioScience

IS - 9

M1 - biaf049

ER -

The immeasurable value of plankton to humanity

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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