Year: 2022

VAST OCEANIC CARBON SINKS. "Oceans are at present CO2 sinks, and represent the largest active carbon sink on Earth, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. On longer timescales they may be both sources and sinks – during ice ages CO2 levels decrease to ~180 ppmv, and much of this is believed to be stored in the oceans. As ice ages end, CO2 is released from the oceans and CO2 levels during previous interglacials have been around ~280 ppmv."" " http://lnkd.in/dQANKaJ View in LinkedIn

MARTIN'S IRON HYPOTHESIS is that marine microorganisms often lack iron in their environment, and when artificially or naturally added (iron rich dust storms) can cause an algal bloom that could cool the planet by sequestering CO2 in carbonate if their shells on a massive scale. It was first tested in open oceans in 1993. http://lnkd.in/dqqNa4K View in LinkedIn

MASSIVE FORTY PERCENT DROP IN OCEAN PHYTOPLANKTON. "Phytoplankton, described as the 'fuel' on which marine ecosystems run, are experiencing declines of about 1 per cent of the average total a year. According to the researchers from Dalhousie University in Canada the annual falls translate to a 40 per cent drop in phytoplankton since 1950. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface carbon dioxide and ultimately support all our fisheries."" " http://lnkd.in/dPpZtpn View in LinkedIn

GLOBAL PHYTOPLANKTON BIOMASS IN THE LAST CENTURY. This article draws data together for the global regional oceanic biomass from satellite maps. Clearly there are regional differences, as expected. " " http://lnkd.in/djWnTD5 View in LinkedIn

OCEANIC PHYTOPLANKTON CARBON PUMP."Worldwide, this “biological carbon pump” transfers about 10 gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean each year. Even small changes in the growth of phytoplankton may affect atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which would feed back to global surface temperatures." (NASA)." " http://lnkd.in/dNit4nz View in LinkedIn

PHYTOPLANKTON ADAPTABILITY: CAN THEY COPE? "Global climate change ... has the potential to ... result in adaptive evolution. Although their large population sizes, standing genetic variation, and rapid turnover time should promote swift evolutionary change, oceanographers have focussed on describing patterns of present day physiological differentiation rather than measure potential adaptation in evolution experiments, the only direct way to address whether and at which rate phytoplankton species will adapt to environmental change."" " http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23815643/ View in LinkedIn

THE PLANKTON PARADOX. "Phytoplankton living in the oceans perform nearly half of total global photosynthesis. Eukaryotic phytoplankton exhibit great diversity that contrasts with the lower apparent diversity of ecological niches available to them in aquatic ecosystems. This observation, know as the “paradox of the plankton,” has long puzzled biologists."" " http://lnkd.in/dcfWter View in LinkedIn

TINY PHYTOPLANKTON'S MIGHTY PUNCH. "Without this microalga's calcium carbonate exoskeleton, the chalk cliffs on the German island of Rügen or the White Cliffs of Dover would not exist. These landmarks are nothing but gigantic calcium carbonate plate deposits – alga exoskeletons accumulated over millions of years. Moreover ... (it) counteracts climate change, since it captures large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere when forming its calcium carbonate plates."" " https://www.helmholtz.de/en/artikel/genome-analysis-adaptability-of-haptophyte-uncovered-1676/ View in LinkedIn

LAKE PHYTOPLANKTON ADAPTABILITY. Among the many species present in freshwater lakes, at least some species studied are very adaptable to changes in its environment. " ""The Bacillariophyta has higher adaptability to the changeable environment. The Chlorophyta can tolerate higher concentration of permanganate indexes, phosphorus nutrients, nitrogen nutrients and total organic carbon."" " http://lnkd.in/dMtZ-NFhttp://lnkd.in/duRQh8n View in LinkedIn

PHYTOPLANKTON ARE ADAPTABLE. "Our present understanding of the sensitivity of marine life to ocean acidification is based primarily on short-term experiments, in which organisms are exposed to increased concentrations of CO2. However, phytoplankton species with short generation times, in particular, may be able to respond to environmental alterations through adaptive evolution."" " http://lnkd.in/dGEF2dh View in LinkedIn