Oh The Hugh Manatee!
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Posted on 12/06/2008 8:05:55 PM PST by Coleus
Vanishing Arctic sea ice brought on by climate change is causing the crucially important microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton to bloom explosively and die away as never before, a phenomenon that is likely to create havoc among migratory creatures that rely on the ocean for food, Stanford scientists have found.
A few organisms may benefit from this disruption of the Arctic’s fragile ecology, but a variety of animals, from gray whales to seabirds, will suffer, said Stanford biological oceanographer Kevin Arrigo.
"It’s all a question of timing," Arrigo said. "If migratory animals reach the Arctic and find the phytoplankton’s gone, they’ll have missed the boat."
Phytoplankton throughout the world’s oceans is the crucial nutrient at the base of the food web on which all marine life depends; when it’s plentiful, life thrives, and when it’s gone, marine life is impossible.
Arrigo and his colleagues gathered 10 years of observations from six NASA satellites to study changes in the evidence of chlorophyll — a key to measuring the annual abundance and disappearance of phytoplankton blooms — at the surface of the oceans. The satellite network has also recorded the yearly appearance and disappearance of vast expanses of sea ice and the increasing areas of open ocean all around the Arctic, an indication of how climate change is taking hold in the northern reaches of the globe.
A report of their findings is to appear in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The annual deep freeze that has covered much of the northern seas with ice around the polar regions was once a regular event, but what has been normal for millennia in the High Arctic is no longer the case. As global climate change has warmed the world’s oceans, warmer water has moved into the frigid Arctic, causing changes in the once-regular appearance and disappearance of sea ice over vast areas.
The result is a shift in when explosive blooms of phytoplankton appear and disappear, Arrigo’s team has found.
"It’s a complex system," Arrigo said in an interview, "but as the changes in ice cover throw the timing of phytoplankton abundance off, then the birds and animals whose brains have long been programmed to migrate north at specific times of the year will have missed the boat if there’s no nourishment for them when they get there."
A NJ Newspaper publishing global warming rubbish when the state of NJ has among the most polluted beaches in the world.
Didn’t I hear recently that the “conveyor” was at speed again? Correct me if i’m wrong.
When is the meme of “vanishing Arctic sea ice” going to vanish itself? The Arctic ice pack is GROWING, not shrinking, you morons. It has to do with that really bright thing you see in the sky every day, not cars.
More CO2 INCREASES plankton growth by up to 47% (if for example CO2 increases from 380 to 500 ppm), and more warmth increases growth as well.
More ice coverage (good for polar bears ???) kills the plants that can't get sunshine under the ice....
A NJ Newspaper publishing global warming rubbish when the state of NJ has among the most polluted beaches in the world. >>
the beaches are beautiful, millions come there every summer to use them. where did you hear this? I know back in the 80’s, garbage from the NYC barges washed up but that problem was solved a decade ago.
Oh The Hugh Manatee!
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Plankton is dead? NO NO NO! He is one of my favorite characters on “SpongeBob SquarePants”! He sounds like Robert Goulet on a bender, and he is a persistant little one-eyed green genius!
Pinheads who are still pimping “global warming” for their god, Algore, are real losers. They really need to grow up and find themselves a REAL job!
It is believed that more than 400 tusked whales could be trapped in the ice north of Baffin Island, far more than the 200 originally estimated, making it one of the biggest strandings ever seen in the Arctic.
The animals were trapped as ice moved in or formed quickly, closing their breathing holes and thus preventing them from reaching open waters, some 30 miles away.
Darn that Global Warming!
Thanks for posting the article.
Couldn’t get past the first three words.
VANISHING Artic Ice.
Darn that Gorebull Warming!
Crabbie Paddies all around!
I love SpongeBob! My husband acts all annoyed when I watch it, but I know he secretly likes SpongeBob too! It is brilliant! Plankton is great. Hey, when the news is too depressing, there’s nothing like a few episodes of SpongeBob to make you feel better! Order UP!!! 3 Crabby Patties with the works!!!
Yes, more CO2 in the air will increase phytoplankton growth (and only phytoplankton growth, not zooplankton). If the phytoplankton productivity is too great, a “bloom” occurs, followed by a “crash” or massive die-off due to the phytoplankton’s having rapidly depleted the surface nutrients in the water.
The early die-off throws the natural “schedule” off, and thus phytoplankton ultimately ends up being scarce — for a while. Since phytoplankton is the nutrient at the very bottom of the food chain, the scarcity caused by an unusual bloom and die-off affects everything else on up to the top of the chain.
Now, whether this is all happening because of a “vanishing” Arctic ice pack, and whether that “vanishing” ice pack is due to human activity of any sort, and whether there is anything at all that humans can really do to correct the situation — I’ll leave that to the readers to decide...
Google “eutrophication”.
1) Assumes facts not in evidence: ". . .As global climate change has warmed the world’s oceans . . ."
2) North Jersey Newspapers (which suck) once again prove that they've never read Darwin. The earth is not a static system.
Yes, artic ice is growing. Here is a site that compares ice extension between two dates. You can see that there is now more ice coverage than at the same time one year ago.
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=07&fd=16&fy=2007&sm=07&sd=16&sy=2008
I am really fed up about hearing the “artic ice disappearing” mantra.
![](http://bp3.blogger.com/_hL7HogamDVc/RmKD_USeqgI/AAAAAAAAAP0/7QGzDOwKGwU/s400/box.jpg")
PLANKTON FROM THE SEA!!!
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