Seeding oceans with iron may not impact climate change

Historically, the oceans have done much of the planet's heavy lifting when it comes to sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Microscopic organisms known collectively as phytoplankton, which grow throughout the ...

New threat from ocean acidification emerges in the Southern Ocean

The oceans act as a carbon sink and have already absorbed more than 40% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. The majority of this CO2 has been taken up by the Southern Ocean making these waters hotspots of ocean acidification ...

Key biological mechanism is disrupted by ocean acidification

A team led by scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has demonstrated that the excess carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere ...

In Gulf Of Mexico, microbes thrive above natural oil seeps

In the water above natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico, where oil and gas bubbles rise almost a mile to break at the surface, scientists have discovered something unusual: phytoplankton, tiny microbes at the base of the ...

What phytoplankton physiology has to do with global climate

Phytoplankton, tiny photosynthetic organisms in the ocean, play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and influence Earth's climate. A new study reveals how variations in the physiology of phytoplankton, particularly ...

The climate system relies on microscopic particles

The Earth's climate is an extremely complex system that is driven by the subtle balance of many different processes—a key one of which is the air-sea exchange of CO2. Monitoring the ocean's uptake of CO2 is key to our understanding ...

Vast phytoplankton blooms may be lurking beneath Antarctic ice

Until now, it's been a common belief that the packed sea ice of the Southern Ocean blocked all light from reaching the sea beneath, preventing phytoplankton—tiny algae that are the base of aquatic food webs—from growing ...

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