IMAGES: Space-Eyed View of Algae Blooms
Awesome images...be sure to click through the gallery.
When microscopic marine organisms known as phytoplankton multiply into a dense population at the ocean’s surface, massive blooms can spread so far that they can only be seen from space. These algal blooms create beautiful patterns that can stretch for hundreds of miles and trace the ocean’s swirling currents.
Phytoplankton are the foundation of the ocean food web and are critical to the health of nearly everything that lives there. They contain chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis and turn sunlight into energy which feeds their predators, and their predators’ predators, all the way up through the food chain to large fish, mammals and birds such as sharks, sea lions and penguins.
Recent research suggests the fear that warming oceans could hamper phytoplankton growth may be real. The organisms depend on mixing of ocean water to bring nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates to the surface. As the ocean warms, it becomes more stratified, with the warmer water remaining at the top where the organisms need to be in order to do photosynthesis.
A big reduction in phytoplankton could threaten marine animals and the fisheries humans depend on. And it could create a climate feedback loop that would increase temperatures further. These organisms absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and take it to the bottom of the ocean when they die, where it stays for thousands of years. So as their numbers decline, they will do less to keep global temperatures down.
In addition to capturing amazing images of the phytoplankton blooms, satellite data is one of the only ways to study them. Different species of phytoplankton change the way the ocean reflects light in different ways. The chlorophyll in the tiny organisms causes the ocean’s surface to reflect green. Other pigments can make the water look red or brown. Some phytoplankton called coccolithophores are coated with white calcite that makes the water look bright turquoise when billions of them get together.
More on phytoplankton from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Click on any image in this gallery for a high-res version.reposted from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/
Magnificent Marine Algae Blooms Seen From Space
- By Betsy Mason August 23, 2010 7:00 am
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Phytoplankton are the foundation of the ocean food web and are critical to the health of nearly everything that lives there. They contain chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis and turn sunlight into energy which feeds their predators, and their predators’ predators, all the way up through the food chain to large fish, mammals and birds such as sharks, sea lions and penguins.
Recent research suggests the fear that warming oceans could hamper phytoplankton growth may be real. The organisms depend on mixing of ocean water to bring nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates to the surface. As the ocean warms, it becomes more stratified, with the warmer water remaining at the top where the organisms need to be in order to do photosynthesis.
A big reduction in phytoplankton could threaten marine animals and the fisheries humans depend on. And it could create a climate feedback loop that would increase temperatures further. These organisms absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and take it to the bottom of the ocean when they die, where it stays for thousands of years. So as their numbers decline, they will do less to keep global temperatures down.
In addition to capturing amazing images of the phytoplankton blooms, satellite data is one of the only ways to study them. Different species of phytoplankton change the way the ocean reflects light in different ways. The chlorophyll in the tiny organisms causes the ocean’s surface to reflect green. Other pigments can make the water look red or brown. Some phytoplankton called coccolithophores are coated with white calcite that makes the water look bright turquoise when billions of them get together.
More on phytoplankton from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Click on any image in this gallery for a high-res version.reposted from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/phytoplankton-blooms-gallery/
posted by i dont think so @ 23.8.10
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