La microgiungla del mare

Millions of life forms in a single drop of seawater: it is the micro-jungle called plankton, the invisible sap of Planet Earth.

Having revealed themselves to the first humans as a night light shining on the water’s surface, planktonic organisms are the basis of marine ecosystems, producing oxygen and feeding the smallest fish.

Beginning with the Gulf of Naples, the author gives us a multidimensional presentation of plankton: first on a small scale, detailing the massive biodiversity of alien-shaped, singularly behaved microbial plants and animals, all the way to a global scale, tracing the network that links chemical elements and aquatic photosynthesis, fish and plastics, the origin of life and climate change, science and society. The book’s foreword is by Telmo Pievani.