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images by Karine Leblanc, National Geographic, National Geographic, NOAA Corps Collection, OBS, and Scire

Diatoms

As producers, they are the beginning of the food chain, and thus are very important. Diatoms are unicellular, but can exist as colonies, and are also one of the most common types of phytoplankton.

Not restricted to one particular habitat, diatoms can be found anywhere from oceans, to freshwater rivers, and soil.