Plankton

We swim in a sea.

Some years ago, on what basis I don't recall, I discussed with a FB Friend what chalk is composed of, and wound up sending her an image of chalk under a microscope.

Chalk viewed under a microscope.

Chalk is a sedimentary rock made up of the skeletons of millions and millions of tiny sea creatures that are generally called plankton. These are single-celled plants that somehow have calcium carbonate skeletons, and it's those skeletons that make up chalk.

These Coccolithophores make for a fascinating study. They constitute the food for many, many other sea creatures, and their photosynthesis provides half the world's oxygen.

"Plankton" is actually a generalized term that refers to anything that, like these creatures, has no mobility of its own, but rather is merely swept along — here, there, anywhere — by the sea currents. Thus it includes many different kids of plants and animals and other objects.

There is plankton in the atmosphere, the air around us, also.

It includes dust, pollen, disease germs, viruses, spores, and all kinds of other living things and objects.

I love moss.

The Shady Reason You Should Consider A Moss Lawn Instead Of Grass

You look at it up close, and see the one-celled leaves — pretty, delicate, gentle.

When I first moved into my current residence, several years ago, there was no moss growing in the cracks in the pavement in my back yard. Now there's a lot. The spores weren't there in the ground to begin with. The wind brought them here from elsewere.

In my childhood, my youngest brother was an avid gardener, and every summer of his teenage years had a sizeable plot of one thing or another somewhere in our yard. One summer, he put in a 10 foot by 20 foot stand of sweet corn.

Smut attacked it.

Corn smut

You can be sure that there was no other corn, let alone corn smut, anywhere for miles around. Yet the wind brought those spores to us.

Of course, the winds bring us favorable things, too. They carry the pollen that most trees rely on for fruitfulness. I didn't catch a whiff of it this year, but most years, I relish the scent of the linden trees when they bloom all across Baltimore.

Much more happens around us than meets the eye.

References: Chalk - Wikipedia

Plankton - Wikipedia

Coccolithophore - Wikipedia