biodiversity

The ocean's tiniest inhabitants — including bacteria, plankton, krill — are food for most everything that swims or floats. Now, scientists have completed a count of this vast and diverse hidden world.

A group of chefs gathered this month in Sao Paolo to talk about how they can help preserve biodiversity. Among their warnings: If we lose food products, we will lose flavors and traditions.

The urban oasis boasts about 170,000 different types of microbes, recent dirt samples show. That diversity is comparable to a tropical rain forest. About 2,000 species are found only in the park.