'Megabloom' of tiny plants under Arctic sea ice tied to climate change
Source: MSNBC
'Megabloom' of tiny plants under Arctic sea ice tied to climate change
13
minutes
ago
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
Experts were shocked to find a thick, 60-mile-long "phytoplankton megabloom" under Arctic sea ice, announcing in a study Thursday that ice made thinner by warming temperatures has, for now at least, created ideal conditions for the microscopic, single-cell plants to flourish.
More blooms are likely hidden under the ice, making for "ecological shifts" in Arctic waters that favor some species over others since phytoplankton are the base of the marine food chain, Stanford professor and lead researcher Kevin Arrigo told msnbc.com.
Scientists had thought Arctic phytoplankton blooms only happened after sea ice melted in summer, so the discovery is "like finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave Desert," added Paula Bontempi, who manages the ocean biology program at NASA, which funded the research.
The waters literally looked like pea soup," Arrigo said at a press conference announcing the study in the journal Science. "It was as thick as a 5-year-old child is tall.
Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/07/12108925-megabloom-of-tiny-plants-under-arctic-sea-ice-tied-to-climate-change?=
MADem
(135,425 posts)Good video at that link, too--thanks!
This kind of stuff fascinates me.
progressoid
(49,991 posts)That's a weird comparison.
greiner3
(5,214 posts)This could be GREAT news, at least for the near and medium future. As the planet warms this food source could be of supreme importance. The world's fish catch has been decreasing in the last few years and will only continue to plummet. However, I can't even begin to estimate how many hundreds or thousands of tons of seafood blooms such as these could sustain.
On the bad side, stranger and stranger things will continue to occur and this just seems to be ONE of the vast majority that are terrible.