Critical Ocean Organisms Are Disappearing

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/07/critical-ocean-organisms-are-dis.html

- The number of marine phytoplankton has been declining by about 1% per year -- If the trend continues, it could decimate ocean food chains and accelerate global warming.

- Researchers know that phytoplankton numbers have been dropping for the past 30 years.


- "You compound that over a century, this becomes a huge, huge decline," -- estimates that phytoplankton numbers have plummeted 40% since 1950.

- What's more, the team found that phytoplankton numbers were more likely to dwindle in areas of the ocean that were warming.

- Even more chilling -- is the potential impact on our atmosphere. The ocean absorbs 40% of the CO2 humans emit. Phytoplankton, in turn, convert that CO2 into oxygen -- "the ocean as a carbon sink is declining, and what that means is ultimately more CO2 will stay in the atmosphere instead of being dissolved in the ocean." That will translate into a warmer world, which will wipe out even more phytoplankton.