Most of the Arctic’s Microscopic Algae Are Chilling Under Ice

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https://eos.org/research-spotlights/most-of-the-arctics-microscopic-algae-are-chilling-under-ice

Source:  By Rachel Fritts, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: New research reveals that tiny single-celled organisms in the Arctic Ocean are growing more numerous as climate change thins the ice. ...Marine phytoplankton are the solar panels of the sea, soaking up the Sun’s rays to make energy that powers ocean ecosystems. These single-celled organisms photosynthesize like plants, sucking carbon out of the atmosphere and producing about half of the world’s oxygen. Scientists consider phytoplankton to be the ocean’s most important primary producers, because they take energy directly from the Sun and make it available to the rest of ocean life in such vast quantities. ... As climate change warms the ocean, ice thin enough for blooms to form underneath is becoming more common. “What we’re seeing now is thinner sea ice and earlier snowmelts, so there’s more light actually reaching through the ice into the surface of the ocean than there used to be,” said Jaclyn Kinney, an oceanographer with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif....

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