"When we think of the #ocean, we might think of whales, waves, dolphins, fish, the smell of the sea, its blue colour, and its vastness; most of us would not look out at the sea and think of marine microbes, nor did marine scientists for over a century. They sailed the seas and strenuously dragged plankton nets through the ocean’s pelagic zone to capture what they judged would represent the marine biota.
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Farooq Azam, 2011
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"But they were unaware that the great majority of the #biota, perhaps 99%, easily streamed through the holes of their nets; the holes were simply too big to capture these microbes. Even when membrane flters and microscopy were used, and they revealed great diversity of #microplankton and #nanoplankton, most #microbes evaded detection. The view of the pelagic web of life that emerged and became entrenched for a century was then based on a tiny fraction of marine biota."
Farooq Azam, 2011