Latest Phytoplankton Stories

A team of scientists has returned to the North Atlantic to gather more data on the Icelandic volcanic eruption that took place earlier this year. The researchers are studying whether iron within the vast volcanic ash cloud entered the ocean, causing an extended bloom of tiny organisms known as phytoplankton. The scientists have recorded "enhanced levels" of iron in samples they have collected. The most recent project follows an earlier cruise, which was carried out in the spring....

Onboard the U.S. Coast Guard Healy, June 29 -- "I think there are quite a lot of particles in the water today."That's the analysis from Dariusz Stramski, a scientist onboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy for NASA's ICESCAPE mission in the Arctic's Chukchi Sea. The five-week mission, NASA's first oceanographic field campaign, is studying the physics, chemistry and biology of the ocean and ice within a changing Arctic.Stramski, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, stirred...

Adding nutrients to the sea could decrease viral infection rates among phytoplankton and enhance the efficiency of the biological pump, a means by which carbon is transferred from the atmosphere to the deep ocean, according to a new mathematical modelling study. The findings, published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, have implications for ocean geo-engineering schemes proposed for tackling global warming.Tiny free-floating algae called phytoplankton dominate biological production in...

Lack of sufficient iron may be a significant factor in controlling massive blooms of Emiliania huxleyi, a globally important species of marine algae or phytoplankton, according to research led by researchers at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton.Emiliania huxleyi is a species of coccolithophore found in oceans all around the world, from the tropics to the Arctic Ocean. Coccolithophore blooms often develop during the summer when a blanket of water called the thermocline...

Even in the dark abyss of the deep ocean animal communities can undergo rapid, widespread and radical changes. Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre are at the forefront of monitoring these changes and understanding the mechanisms responsible. Their latest research is published in a special issue of the journal Deep Sea Research II.We often think of the deep ocean floor as stable, relatively unvarying environment untroubled by surface climate conditions. But long-term monitoring has...

Scientists are investigating impact of oil spill on vibrios and their antibiotic association with phytoplanktonMississippi Sound. Port Fourchon. Cocodrie.Three places among dozens in the Gulf of Mexico where oyster beds have thrived.How are the oysters faring with the oil spill? The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a rapid response grant to scientists Crystal Johnson, Gary King and Ed Laws of Louisiana State University (LSU) to find out.The researchers will look at how the...

Computer simulations performed by researchers at the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Glasgow show how oceanic stirring and mixing influence the formation and dynamics of plankton patches in the upper ocean.Tiny free-floating marine plants called phytoplankton live in vast numbers in the sunlit upper ocean. Through the process of photosynthesis, they build carbon compounds such as sugars starting with just water and carbon dioxide, which is thereby drawn down from the...

Acidity is increasing in some regions of the Chesapeake Bay even faster than is occurring in the open ocean, where it is now recognized that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolve in the seawater thereby making it more acidic. These more acidic conditions in key parts of Chesapeake Bay reduce rates of juvenile oyster shell formation, according to new research published in the journal Estuaries and Coasts. The study, conducted at the University of Maryland Center for...

Inputs of dust from the Sahara desert could change the composition of microbial communities in the (sub)tropical eastern North Atlantic say Southampton researchers writing this month in the journal FEMS Microbiology Letters.When high winds blow over the Sahara, dust particles consisting of soil particles are lifted high into the atmosphere, blown over the sea, and then deposited on the ocean surface."Desert dust particles contain nutrients such as iron that can boost the production of...

A team of researchers from the UK's National Oceanography Centre will be spending the next month investigating how recent eruptions of an Icelandic volcano have effected marine life in the North Atlantic, according to a Thursday BBC News report.Earlier this month, eruptions at a volcano located beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland covered the area with volcanic dust and created an ash cloud that crippled European air travel for the better part of a week.Now, the research...