BOOK HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH

Welcome to the world of plankton

Planktonia

By Erich Hoyt

 Firefly Books, £28.00

WHILE MANY SPECIES MIGRATE TO their feeding ground or to their breeding area just once a year, there’s a migration that happens every night – but it’s by a creature so small you’d be forgiven for having overlooked it.

For plankton, their migration begins at sunset, when they rise up through the ocean, eating plant plankton and other delicious morsels as they go. These microscopic creatures descend just before dawn to the depths of the ocean to hide during daylight hours. The next evening, the process begins again. Although the cloak of darkness provides a safer passage for plankton, there are still predators everywhere, with jellyfish, basking sharks and blue whales lurking in the shadows.

Featuring stunning detailed images throughout, Hoyt’s latest book examines the nightlife of these tiny ocean plankton and the stories of the wildlife photographers that join them in darkness to capture their vertical migrations.

Thanks to the increase is a tribute to these photographers and the scientists they work with to document the many species and their unique attributes and behaviours.