They're small, depend on ocean currents to get from place to place, and receive less PR than the larger animals of the oceans. Without phytoplankton (phyto=plant-like), zooplankton (zoo="animal-like") and the larvae of some fish, however, our food chain would collapse. Tracy Shaw, zooplankton ecologist, studies these tiny drifters in the Bering Sea to determine what effect changes in ocean temperature will have on their populations and, in turn, on the populations of the animals that depend on them for food.