Plankton are crucial to ecosystem functioning; they are at the basis of the marine food web and play an important role in biogeochemical cycles. Phytoplankton, or microscopic algae, are much like land plants as they produce oxygen while fixing carbon and play a role in the nitrogen, phosphorus and silica cycles. They are in turn an important source of food for zooplankton, small animals, which are eaten by higher organisms like fish. Because of their fast generation times and short lifespans, plankton can respond quickly to environmental changes, and this influence is translated throughout the foodweb. Some plankton taxa are also known to cause blooms and these temporary high abundances of certain species can be a nuisance to other organisms and the environment. Harmful taxa can also cause mass mortality events through the production of toxins or by causing hypoxic and anoxic conditions in the water column when blooms are broken down by bacteria at the end of their lifetimes.  

Plankton are often used as indicators of ecosystem health and as early warning systems of change and are consequently required to be monitored by legislative directives, like the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). 

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