LONDON, Sept 6 — Nickolodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants and BBC Earth work together to produce this video for World Oceans Day, reminding us that sometimes, the tiniest and most humble organism may also be one the most important.
Initially, SpongeBob introduced a montage on what he felt were the most important creatures on the planet, with majestic shots of large animals like the elephant, bear, eagle and the blue whale, the largest animal on earth.
However, just as he was about to award ‘The Most Important Lifeform’ award to the awe-inspiring blue whale, his arch-nemesis, Sheldon J. Plankton, showed up to tell him that one of the most indispensable lifeform on Earth is the humble plankton.
“You love all the big stuff (like cute penguins)... but none of that stuff would exist without plankton like me,” Plankton told Spongebob (and us).
These tiny organisms — which include plant-like ones called phytoplankton and animal-like organisms called zooplankton — plays a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth.
Not only are they a primary food source for many marine animals, being at the bottom of the food chain, but they also provide about half of the world’s oxygen supply.
When large numbers of phytoplankton are concentrated in one area, the colour of the water surface changes. This plankton bloom phenomenon can even been seen from space.
Not bad for a creature that’s mostly invisible to the naked eye.
