PART ONE: A global perspective of marine primary productivity
Picture the ocean; what do you see? Perhaps a view of waves crashing against the shell-littered sand on the beach comes to mind, or maybe images of creatures large and small: whales, sharks, fishes, seahorses, and crabs. How many people, upon reading that command, would picture perhaps the most consequential inhabitants of Earth’s oceans: phytoplankton? Despite being far from the flashiest members of the marine ecosystem, these small, single-celled producers are arguably the most important; without phytoplankton, life as we know it would not be possible, either in the oceans or on land.