Plankton Growth Increase In Ocean Could Be Tied To Rising Carbon Dioxide

Coccolithophores which are small calcifying plants are part of the foundation of marine food web and have been increasing in abundance throughout the North Atlantic in the last forty-five years since carbon input in ocean waters have increased. The rapid growth rate of the marine microorganisms corresponds with an increase in carbon dioxide levels.

Meanwhile, we read many news related to rise of global warming nowadays, and the rise of Carbon dioxide has a connection with global warming, we all know.

Published Nov. 26 in the journal Science, the study details a tenfold increase in the abundance of single-cell coccolithophores between 1965 and 2010, and a particularly sharp spike since the late 1990s in the population of these pale-shelled floating phytoplankton.

According to the researchers from John Hopkins University, the findings could be a result of climbing carbon dioxide levels as well as climate change.

Anand Gnanadesikan, associate professor in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins noted that there is a marine development underway, and it’s occurring faster than scientists think it should. The new study shows, it didn’t.

The researchers based their data from prior surveys from the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation (SAHFOS) Continuous Plankton Recorder that were carried out in the North Atlantic Ocean and North Sea since the 1960s. The Christian Science Monitor reported, “By 2100, ocean acidification will have grown to such an extent that some species of phytoplankton “will die out, while others will flourish”.

While scientists are near certain that carbon dioxide is the most likely cause for the increasing numbers of these organisms, further research is needed to confirm this theory.

The rapid growth of the plankton species shocked the scientists, and they are linking this to the rising Carbon Dioxide in the ocean. “But unless we understand what drives coccolithophore abundance, we can’t understand what is driving such shifts”.

“These clearly represent major shifts in ecosystem type”, said Gnanadesikan.

He said it is troubling that their research shows just how little information is available regarding the complex functions of ecosystems. Coccolithophores have been known to be abundant during times in Earth’s history where Carbon dioxide levels were high. “The results presented here are consistent with this and may portend, like the “canary in the coal mine”, where we are headed climatologically”, said Balch.

It still remains to be seen whether the rapid growth in the microscopic plankton’s population will help or hurt the planet.