Phytoplankton Distribution Changing as a Result of Global Warming
16.03.2009 - Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Flora & Fauna, Other, Antarctic
Results from a research team led by Martin Montes-Hugo of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey to be published tomorrow in the journal Science, shows the effects global warming is having on fauna and flora. With the normally cold, dry climate of the western Antarctic Peninsula becoming warmer and more humid, phytoplankton, at the base of the Antarctic food chain, is decreasing off the northern part the peninsula and increasing further south. The paper, drawing on 30 years of satellite data and field studies, shows that levels of phytoplankton off the western AntarcticPeninsula have indeed decreased 12 percent over the past 30 years.
According to Montes-Hugo, the changes in phytoplankton population are likely at least one of the reasons for the observed decline of some penguin populations, such Adélie penguins, which lives in the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula, and an increase in sub-Antarctic penguins such as the chin-strap penguin. This implies that climate change is impacting the base of the food chain and can force its effects on up through it.
The Antarctic Peninsula has been warming faster than any part of the Earth during winter. But as both the northern and southern parts of the peninsula are seeing sea ice recede, this is causing greater mixing of the water column in the northern part of the peninsula and less mixing in the southern pat, leading to more cloudy days in the north, which prevents photosynthesis in plankton and consequently a reduced population, and more sunny days to the south, which allows for greater photosynthesis in plankton and thus an increased population.
