Phytoplankton worldwide have been shrinking for 100 years, study shows

[Elmore Furth]

There has been a concern for a long time that the ocean's 'dead zones' would increase as carbon dioxide increased in the atmosphere. It appears that the trend has already begun. Increases in carbon dioxide can make marine animals more susceptible to low concentrations of oxygen, and thus exacerbate the effects of low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean. Currently, deep-sea life is threatened by a combination of increasing carbon dioxide and decreasing oxygen concentrations.

Ocean Dead Zones Likely To Expand: Increasing Carbon Dioxide And Decreasing Oxygen Make It Harder For Deep-Sea Animals To Breath

The world's phytoplankton appear to have been disappearing at a rate of about 1% a year for the last century, researchers announced Wednesday, a disturbing long-term trend for the microscopic algae that form the basis of the marine food chain and produce much of the world's oxygen.

In reporting their findings in the journal Nature, the Canadian team said that, since 1950, phytoplankton biomass has shrunk about 40%. Scientists had known the population was shrinking, but the long-term nature of that reduction came as a surprise.

The study combines historical records of ocean clarity with modern satellite data, the latter of which have been available only since the 1970s. Together, the modern and historical information provide an accurate long-term view of the state of phytoplankton, something scientists haven't had before now.

"They're creating a climate record out of something that really wasn't designed to do this, using sophisticated techniques," said David Siegel, a UC Santa Barbara marine scientist who co-wrote a commentary on the paper. "It fills in a piece of our history, so we're able to tell the story of what has been happening in the last 100 years."

Phytoplankton worldwide have been shrinking for 100 years, study shows

[DCBob]

1. This cannot be a good trend..

who knows what the chain of effects this could lead to.

[dipsydoodle]

2. As a simple example of its effect

It was already known by observation in the north of Scotland that sea bird colony had declined with less eggs being laid. It was found that sea warming there had caused plankton to move further north and the small fish which feed on that had moved north too. As a result the birds were having a fly further to feed.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Been hearing about this for the past few days, and what fascinates me...

is that evidence has been mounting for years that we are actually killing the oceans but there is never any great outcry over the .

However, one gushing oil well that will be capped and the oil eventually dealt with by nature gets everyone all het up that the world is coming to an end.

Just the western section of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/10-the-worlds-largest-dump

Since about 70% of the plastic that ends up in the ocean sinks to the bottom, that's a lot of plastic in the ocean. Then, there's the invasive species problem, overfishing, coastal habitat elimination...

Global warming is the final touch.