Plankton are the backbone of the ocean - and may struggle with what's coming

If the small things disappear, the food disappears - for the small fish, and then for the bigger fish, for the marine mammals and for us.

Plankton, many of which form the base of marine food chains, are under siege. The research punctuates one of the many ways oceans are increasingly under assault.

Any drop in plankton levels will have cascading effects through marine ecosystems.

While many plankton acclimated to the increase in temperature from the height of the last ice age 20,000 years ago to today, plankton will decline in biomass by more than 10 percent.

Read at Washington Post