Explanation:

Phytoplankton is the plant like organisms of the water that carry out photosynthesis and float in the upper areas of the world’s ocean. They are the producers present in the aquatic ecosystem. Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, are similar to terrestrial plants in that they contain chlorophyll to capture sunlight, and they use photosynthesis to turn it into chemical energy in order to live and grow.

Phytoplankton is responsible for most of the transfer of carbon in the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean. Worldwide, this “biological carbon pump” transfers about 10 gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean each year. Even small changes in the growth of phytoplankton may affect atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which would feed back to global surface temperatures.

Certain creatures both on land and sea can produce light through chemical reactions taking place within their bodies known as Bioluminescence. Bioluminescent phytoplankton occur in all the world’s oceans. The most common of these are Dinoflagellates which are tiny unicellular marine plankton also known as fire plants Bioluminescence is used to evade predators and acts as a defense mechanism in dinoflagellates. Dinoflagelletes produce light when disturbed and will give a light flash lasting a fraction of a second. The flash is meant to attract a predator to the creature disturbing or trying to consume the dinoflagellate. The light flash also surprises the predator causing it to worry about other predators attacking it, making the predator less likely to prey on the dinoflagellate.