mohandasgandhi:

Scientists … plotted the yearly spring bloom of phytoplankton—tiny plants at the base of the ocean food chain—in the Arctic Ocean and found the peak timing of the event has been progressing earlier each year for more than a decade. The researchers analyzed satellite data depicting ocean color and phytoplankton production to determine that the spring bloom has come up to 50 days earlier in some areas in that time span.

The earlier Arctic blooms have roughly occurred in areas where ice concentrations have dwindled and created gaps that make early blooms possible, say the researchers, who publish their findings in the March 9 edition of the journal Global Change Biology.

That’s from the news release at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  The study itself is here:  “Are phytoplankton blooms occurring earlier in the Arctic?” (subscription required)….

Human activity is greatly disrupting the entire ocean ecosystem, as the scientific literature makes increasingly clear (see “Geological Society: Acidifying oceans spell marine biological meltdown “by end of century”).  The risks are enormous (see Nature: “Global warming blamed for 40% decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton”:  “Microscopic life crucial to the marine food chain is dying out. The consequences could be catastrophic”).

The Washington Post has a good article on this study, which quotes a number of leading experts raising concerns about the disruption these early blooms may cause:

A new report finds that the disappearing ice has apparently triggered another dramatic event – one that could disrupt the entire ecosystem of fish, shellfish, birds and marine mammals that thrive in the harsh northern climate….

“The ice is retreating earlier in the Arctic, and the phytoplankton blooms are also starting earlier,” said study leader Mati Kahru, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

“The trend is obvious and significant, and in my mind there is no doubt it is related to the retreat of the ice,” said Kahru, who published the work in the journal Global Change Biology….

The sea ice trend is going to continue (see Arctic Death Spiral 2010: Navy’s oceanographer tells Congress, “the volume of ice as of last September has never been lower…in the last several thousand years” and NSIDC director Serreze: “I stand by my previous statements that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is in a death spiral. It’s not going to recover”).

“A 50-day shift is a big shift,” said plankton researcher Michael Behrenfeld of Oregon State University, who was not involved in the study. “As the planet warms, the threat is that these changes seen closer to land may spread across the entire Arctic.”

Ecologists worry that the early blooms could unravel the region’s ecosystem and “lead to crashes of the food web,” said William Sydeman, who studies ocean ecology as president of the nonprofit Farallon Institute in Petaluma, Calif.

When phytoplankton explode in population during the blooms, tiny animals called zooplankton – which include krill and other small crustaceans – likewise expand in number as they harvest the phytoplankton. Fish, shellfish and whales feed on the zooplankton, seabirds snatch the fish and shellfish, and polar bears and seals subsist on those species.

The timing of this sequential harvest is programmed into the reproductive cycles of many animals, Sydeman said. “It’s all about when food is available.” So the disrupted phytoplankton blooms could “have cascading effects up the food web all the way to marine mammals.”

Of course, it might all be coincidence.  Let’s keep doing nothing and find out!  What harm could there be in that:

• Nature Geoscience study concludes ocean dead zones “devoid of fish and seafood” are poised to expand and “remain for thousands of years”

This is huge news and this is an issue I would definitely be aware of.  I briefly talked about why the decline in phytoplankton has been probably the biggest ecological crisis of the last 100 years at least here. I would also highly recommend reading the articles highlighted in this post.  This is an issue we definitely need to be aware of and educated about.

Phytoplankton behave as one of the most fundamental components of the food chain.  With such steep and ongoing declines in population, oceanic biodiversity is sure to take a rather significant hit and life on land cannot be sustained without healthy marine ecosystems and rich oceanic biodiversity.  A very large portion of the human population heavily relies on the services and resources provided by our marine habitats.  Believe it or not, these microscopic creatures have an impact on you.