This roundup of The Conversation’s environment coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine.

In a world without plankton, I wouldn’t get stung by jellyfish when swimming in the sea. But my friend’s fish and chip shop would go bust. There’d be big climate implications too.

Plankton, meaning “drifter” in Greek, encompasses all the viruses, bacteria, insects, larval fish and jellyfish that don’t actively swim. Instead, they drift in oceans, rivers and lakes, at the whim of currents and tides. Many are microscopic; some, like barrel jellyfish, are huge.

I recently explored the planet’s reliance on plankton in a new episode of BBC Radio 4’s Life Without series with TV presenter and comedian Alan Davies. Listen to this thought experiment here.

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