University of Plymouth A shortage of summer nutrients as a result of our changing climate has contributed to a 50% decline in important North East Atlantic plankton over the past 60 years. New research, published in Global Change Biology, shows that larger, nutritious plankton – vital to support fish, seabirds and marine mammals – are…
Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The ocean plays a major role in the global carbon cycle. The driving force comes from tiny plankton that produce organic carbon through photosynthesis, like plants on land. When plankton die or are consumed, a…
Paper at Geophysical Research Letters. J. M. Creamean J. N. Cross R. Pickart L. McRaven P. Lin A. Pacini R. Hanlon D. G. Schmale J. Ceniceros T. Aydell N. Colombi E. Bolger P. J. DeMott First published: 15 July 2019 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083039 Abstract and Introduction~ctm Abstract As Arctic temperatures rise at twice the global rate, sea…
By Andy May We have been told that the phytoplankton population is declining rapidly around the world and, of course, the cause is climate change. Phytoplankton is the base of the ocean food chain and it accounts for about half of global primary productivity or organic matter creation (Boyce, Lewis and Worm 2010). Phytoplankton is…
Guest essay by Eric Worrall Scientists have discovered Antarctic Krill can digest or at least break up lumps of plastic into even smaller lumps – but when the krill were force fed large quantities of radioactive plastic over an extended period their ability to digest plastic deteriorated. Krill found to break down microplastics – but…
Guest post by David Middleton, feature image borrowed from iHerb. A rapid loss of phytoplankton threatens to turn the western Indian Ocean into an “ecological desert,” a new study warns. The research reveals that phytoplankton populations in the region fell an alarming 30 percent over the last 16 years. […] https://www.sciencenews.org/article/phytoplankton-rapidly-disappearing-indian-ocean?tgt=nr The source of…