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What are called planktons? give the importance of phytoplankton?
Plankton are diverse group of organisms that live in the water column and are incapable of swimming against a current.They provide a crucial source of food to many large aquatic organisms, such as fish and whales.

Phytoplankton are photosynthesizing microscopic organisms that inhabit the upper sunlit layer of almost all oceans and bodies of fresh water. They are agents for "primary production," the creation of organic compounds from carbon dioxide dissolved in the water, a process that sustains the aquatic food web. Phytoplankton obtain energy through the process of photosynthesis and must therefore live in the well-lit surface layer  of an ocean, sea, lake, or other body of water. Phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth. Thus phytoplankton are responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth's atmosphere – half of the total amount produced by all plant life. Their cumulative energy fixation in carbon compounds is the basis for the vast majority of oceanic and also many freshwater food webs.


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