NASA Notes Rapid Growth In Phytoplankton Blooms In Arctic Ocean Zones Which Have Lost Ice Cover

[hatrack]

Uncertain as to how phytoplankton -- microscopic marine plants on which much of ocean life depends -- would respond to Arctic sea ice decline, researchers took advantage of NASA satellite images to show that the microscopic floating plants are teeming in regions of recent ice melt.

The explosion in phytoplankton populations is the result of new open-water habitat and, more significantly, an extended ice-free growing season, biological oceanographer Kevin Arrigo and colleagues from Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., reported last month in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.

Since phytoplankton cycle carbon dioxide into organic compounds and also form the base of the marine food web, the researchers believe the booming populations could have complex ecological consequences.

"Arrigo and colleagues have brought together the effects of air-sea interaction, warming water, and decreasing sea ice extent," said Paula Bontempi, a program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "You start to look at all of these interlocking pieces and think: there has got to be an impact on phytoplankton and the ecology of the system."

EDIT

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Arctic_Sea_Ice_Decline_Shakes_Up_Ocean_Ecosystems_999.html

[phantom power]

1. Carbon uptake -- it's negative feedback!

:woohoo:
:crazy:

[XemaSab]

2. .

:popcorn: