Plankton: Environmental and Economic Importance for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Plankton is composed by unicellular, filamentous or colonial organisms that may have prokaryotic or eukaryotic cell structures. These organisms have an extreme ecological importance in the different water bodies worldwide, as they fix carbon dioxide, produce oxygen and are an important key element in the basis of various food chains. Through an industrial perspective, phytoplankton species have been used as a feedstock for a wide range of applications, such as wastewater treatment, or production of high value compounds; and commercial products, such as food and feed supplements, pharmacological compounds, lipids, enzymes, biomass, polymers, toxins, pigments. Zooplankton is commonly used as live food for larval stages to the period of termination of fish, shrimp, mollusks and corals. These types of organisms have characteristics such as a valuable nutritional composition, digestibility, buoyancy, ease of ingestion and attractive movement for post-larvae, thus presenting economic importance. This book chapter aims to demonstrate the several advantages that plankton have, their ecological and economic importance, targeting the production of add-value products.