Wait. I meant NOT promising.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38451744/ns/us_news-environment/
Quote
Plankton, base of ocean food web, in big decline
Study finds 40 percent drop since 1950s, ties it to warming seas
WASHINGTON — Despite their tiny size, plant plankton found in the world's oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world's oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide.
They also are declining sharply.
Worldwide phytoplankton levels are down 40 percent since the 1950s, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The probable cause is global warming, which makes it hard for the plant plankton to get vital nutrients, researchers say.
The numbers are both staggering and disturbing, say the Canadian scientists who did the study and a top U.S. government scientist.
"It's concerning because phytoplankton is the basic currency for everything going on in the ocean," said Dalhousie University biology professor Boris Worm, a study co-author. "It's almost like a recession ... that has been going on for decades."
And this is why I wish pot was legal, to take away the anguish I feel at shit like this, if only for a short period.
Dammit. Now where did I put my pills.
Next stop, Soylent Green.
We should BE so lucky.
I thought global warming was a myth?
Oh, I'm sure this is God's plan or something.
Who is this "GOD"? :?
Quote from: RWHN on July 28, 2010, 09:29:11 PM
Oh, I'm sure this is God's plan or something.
Which one? Khorne? Slaneesh?
Whichever one is the blood God. I think Khorne.
Can someone explain to me how climate change could cause a decline in a such a varied group as plankton? Shouldn't some of the species be resistant to the changes and gain advantage from lack of competition?
And why isn't the use of the ocean as a waste dump a suspect?
Quote from: Requia ☣ on July 28, 2010, 11:22:53 PM
Whichever one is the blood God. I think Khorne.
Can someone explain to me how climate change could cause a decline in a such a varied group as plankton? Shouldn't some of the species be resistant to the changes and gain advantage from lack of competition?
And why isn't the use of the ocean as a waste dump a suspect?
1) Of course. But you expect the news to actually print that? What they're probably doing is using cholorphyl A counts, which is the most common autobiogenetic molecule.
2) it is, just no one talking about it except "the loonies". Plus, how do you manage an international resource? It's the tragedy of the commons, repeated over and over.
Quote from: Kai on July 28, 2010, 11:35:10 PM
Quote from: Requia ☣ on July 28, 2010, 11:22:53 PM
Whichever one is the blood God. I think Khorne.
Can someone explain to me how climate change could cause a decline in a such a varied group as plankton? Shouldn't some of the species be resistant to the changes and gain advantage from lack of competition?
And why isn't the use of the ocean as a waste dump a suspect?
1) Of course. But you expect the news to actually print that? What they're probably doing is using cholorphyl A counts, which is the most common autobiogenetic molecule.
2) it is, just no one talking about it except "the loonies". Plus, how do you manage an international resource? It's the tragedy of the commons, repeated over and over.
This!
Higher water temperatures reduce maximum gas concentration in water.
It looks like this is a mayor limiting factor for plankton.
Likely limiting gases are nitrogen and CO2.
@Requia:
I think you are underestimating how huge the oceans are.
Pollution is a local problem. Uusually these problems aren't a dying of plankton but a blooming of plankton making the water opaque thus creating a dead zone under the plankton.
What we call pollution plankton calls noms.
Quote from: Regret on July 29, 2010, 09:28:13 AM
Higher water temperatures reduce maximum gas concentration in water.
It looks like this is a mayor limiting factor for plankton.
Likely limiting gases are nitrogen and CO2.
@Requia:
I think you are underestimating how huge the oceans are.
Pollution is a local problem. Uusually these problems aren't a dying of plankton but a blooming of plankton making the water opaque thus creating a dead zone under the plankton.
What we call pollution plankton calls noms.
Actually, dead zones are caused by the hypoxia left after all the aerobic bacteria suck the O2 from the water decomposing the massive amounts of algal blooms caused by fertilizer runoff. Key Example: the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
CO2 is seldom a limiting gas in water, it dissolves far more easily than oxygen. O2 is the limiting gas, and it's concentration is largely due to temperature; colder water holds more O2. Also, surface mixing is a big factor, which is why streams usually have much higher 02 concentrations than lakes, there's an order of magnitude more mixing by the tumbling way the water moves down stream.
Nitrogen /gas/ isn't a limiting factor for autotrophic plankton, it's inert. Organic nitrogen isn't actually either. The greatest limiter of aquatic plants, including algae, is phosphorus. So phosphorous fertilizers tend to be the highest cause of blooms.
And as a final note, plants, like all aerobic organisms, /require/ oxygen to metabolize their own sugars. They may produce 02 in the process of photosynthesis, and require carbon dioxide to be the carbon base, but when it comes to actually using those own sugars in growth and maintenence, they metabolize through mitochondria just like most other eukaryotes. Plants seldom are able to live in an anoxic environment, even if they create O2 by their own reactions, because they have to metabolize to even get to the point of photosynthesis.
Tought many water pollutants like mercury were kind-of-everywhere by now. Beside, we know nothing about where the data has been taken.