The World

Warm Water and Small Sea Creatures

Plankton, a tiny organism at the bottom of the ocean’s food chain, plays a big role in showing scientists how warming temperatures affect the ocean ecosystem.

Tiny plankton play an important role in the ocean ecosystem. Scientists believe they may be able to witness some of the effects of climate change by tracking the size and number of these and other organisms and fish living in the water. Radio Deutsche-Welle’s Andrew Ryan took a trip to the islands of Helgoland with researchers to see what they could see at the bottom of the North Sea.