95% of the planet’s biomass is invisible to the naked eye, and most of it is plankton, very tiny plants (phytoplankton such as microalgae) and animals (zooplantkon such as copepods) that live in the water surface area. Microalgae not only form the base of the aquatic food web, but are also the most important origin of the air we breathe (half of the world’s oxygen is produced by microalgae) and of climate stability (half of the global carbon dioxide is absorbed by microalgae).