Surprising new research reveals that as the ocean warms, an ‘invisible forest’ of phytoplankton is expanding and flourishing in the Sargasso Sea. This discovery challenges our understanding of how climate change impacts the foundation of the marine food web.
Phytoplankton’s Dual Response
The new study from the University of Exeter looks at how phytoplankton — tiny drifting organisms that perform around half of all primary production on Earth-were responding to climate variability in the Sargasso Sea.
Indeed, the phytoplankton communities (those floating on the ocean surface and those below) are forming incredibly different responses; so much so, “We were struck by how different these communities are,” says lead author Emma Cross. It has important implications for carbon and nutrient cycles of Cuatro Ciénegas well because although chlorophyll (the pigment that allows photosynthesis to occur but is also what gives these organisms their green color) per surface area decreases, the surface phytoplankton overall biomass remains the same.
The biomass of subsurface phytoplankton has increased over the past 10 years in an ocean becoming warmer. After all, the plucky little deep-living phytoplankton is low-light loving single-celled organisms who(m)live in their happy place on earth, singing that song; they like databases and they enjoy a light sprinkle darling!
The authors of the study concluded that this surprising finding underscores the importance of looking across trophic levels to understand climate change impacts in marine ecosystems beyond just observation.
The invisible underground society
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Satellite data has provided the onlyworldwidee view of phytoplankton populations — historically. Though Howeveris new study reveals the opportunities present by such a method where any of them havingchangede at subsurface layer is hidden.
Using 33 years of data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS), researchers can now describe how the warming ocean changed the total size and composition of phytoplankton in ways that you can see from outer space. The system studied for the last ten years such that, the depth of surface mixed layer, a turbulent region along the ocean’s surface has been reduced.
There is going to be a change in the physical structure of the ocean that will help these subsurface phytoplankton come out on top, and display surprising capabilities for deep survival that can’t be inferred by looking only at the surface. Continued monitoring of these deep-dwelling communities will also be important to help us solve an ongoing mystery about the evolution of our ocean.s
Conclusion
The presence of this ‘invisible forest’ that thrives in the depths of the ocean is a direct indication that supplementing satellite observations with an expanded, integrated view for monitoring the world’s oceans is long overdue. Collectively these are foundational organisms in marine food webs and the global carbon cycle which should gain importance in ocean ecosystems going forward as climate changes. To understand what the future might hold for seafloor ecosystems globally we must first try to make sense of these complex responses.
