Global Warming To Have Major Effect On Ocean Food Web - Study - AFP

[hatrack]

Duh.

A new study of the oceans suggests that phytoplankton -- the vital first link in the food chain of the seas -- will be hugely affected by global warming. Fisheries in the tropics and mid-latitudes could be badly hit by the loss of these micro-organisms as a result of warmer waters, the paper implies.

Phytoplankton grow in the upper layers of the ocean, needing light as well as nitrogen, phosphate and iron to grow. These nutrients come from the cold deep ocean, and are brought to the surface by currents. Oregon State University botanist Michael Behrenfeld and colleagues pored over nearly a decade's-worth of satellite data to see how these tiny, unsung plants of the ocean surface respond to shifts in temperature.

The NASA satellite SeaWiFS uses sensors to record light that is reflected back by the ocean. Banks of phytoplankton can be spotted because they contain chlorophyll, which absorbs red and blue parts of the light spectrum.

Behrenfeld's "map" of phytoplankton found that the mass underwent two big changes over the study period. In 1997-98, phytoplankton increased, matching a period when the El Nino effect was in reverse and the seas were relatively colder. Production of phytoplankton then declined from 1999 to 2004 as El Nino went back into an extended warming cycle. There was then a rise from 2005 to 2006. The scientists say the results clearly link the sea's surface temperature with the abundance of phytoplankton, and thus provide an excellent indicator of what could happen in a warming climate.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061206180315.wiyfmoee.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Uh, aren't plankton a MAJOR source of OXYGEN, dwarfing the

input by plants????

We kill off the plankton, we suffocate. Maybe NOW the denialists will sit up and take notice......

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Gaia at work.

We kill off the plankton, we suffocate. We suffocate, we stop clearcutting the world's forest and burning fossile fuels. We stop clearcutting and burning, more CO2 is absorbed/not released. Less atmospheric CO2, global warming ends. Balance is restored. Minus us, the problem.

[kestrel91316]

3. Just fine. Hope it waits til I'm already dead.

[jpak]

5. Oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere due to the burial of organic carbon in marine sediments

and oxidation of reduced iron in seawater.

No need to worry about a decline atmospheric oxygen due to reduced phyoplankton production (we won't suffocate)...

:hi:

[Odin2005]

4. Hmmm...

Very often, though, these currents are so intense that the phytoplankton are drawn hundreds of metres (feet) into the ocean depths, where sunlight does not penetrate.

In the future, higher temperatures and an influx of fresh water from precipitation and melting ice may help dampen the currents, which would thus spur phytoplankton growth.


According to James lovelock the total OPPOSITE will happen those churning currents are necessary to prevent the water collumn from statifying, cutting plankton off from nutrients trapped in the deep oceans.