Photosynthetic organisms use carbon dioxide to grow, using the sun's energy to break apart the molecules so it can use the carbon to grow. Photosynthetic organisms such as all land-based plants, algae, and phytoplankton could be affected by a severe drop in phytoplankton. The death of the plants would then affect primary consumers of the plants, then ripple out to the carnivorous consumers that eat the plant-eaters.