Phytoplankton seen with scanning electron microscopy

The Southern Ocean around the Antarctic ice sheet is home to two main types of phytoplankton: diatoms (46%) and haptophytes (32%). Diatoms are single-celled, disc-shaped algae and can be up to couple of millimetres in diameter, while haptophytes and cryptophytes are classed as nanoplankton and can be 100 times smaller than diatoms, with single cells typically less than 10 micrometres in diameter. They provide both an important source of food and an important form of carbon sequestration.

Read full story: Tracking the climate-driven shift in Antarctic plankton from space