Crucial marine food chain link withers

[Target_For_Exterm]

"WASHINGTON - The critical base of the ocean food web is shrinking as the world's seas warm, new NASA satellite data show. The discovery has scientists worried about how much food will grow in the future for the world's marine life.

The data show a significant link between warmer water — either from the El Nino weather phenomenon or global warming — and reduced production of phytoplankton of the world's oceans, according to a study in Thursday's journal Nature.

Phytoplankton are the microscopic plant life that zooplankton and other marine animals eat, essentially the grain crop of the world's oceans.

"Everything else up the food web is going to be impacted," said oceanographer Scott Doney of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. "What's worrisome is that small changes that happen in the bottom of food web can have dramatic changes to certain species at higher spots on the food chain.""

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061206/ap_on_sc/warming_marine_life

People say that if the oceans go, we'll be following shortly thereafter. Things don't look good for us, folks, because the oceans are dying. How much of the world depends on the oceans for food - both animals and people?

[magellan]

1. I thought this was another report on Halliburton's "excellent" service to our military

Turns out it's even worse, which says a lot about how bad this news is. Damn, and the Repugs think this is a joke, and won't know different till they're starving in the streets like the rest of us. Fat lot of good their revelation will do then.

[shadowknows69]

2. You destroy the bottom of the food chain

and the rest will tumble to ruin shortly after. We do indeed live in interesing times.