Parachutes Made of Mucus Change How Some Scientists See the Ocean

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By Veronique Greenwood, The New York Times. 

Excerpt: The ocean is filled with microscopic creatures that thrive in the sunshine. These bacteria and plankton periodically clump up with detritus, like waste produced by fish, and then drift softly downward, transforming into what scientists call marine snow. In the inky depths of the ocean that the sun can’t reach, other creatures depend on the relentless fall of marine snow for food. Those of us living on land depend on it, too: Marine snow is thought to store vast amounts of carbon in the ocean rather than letting it heat Earth’s atmosphere. Once those particles of marine snow arrive at the ocean bottom, their carbon stays down there for untold eons. ...Researchers ...found that gooey, transparent parachutes considerably slow the snow’s descent.... These findings are described in a paper published last week in the journal Science. ...The bigger the mucus gob, the scientists found, the slower the particle’s fall. ...“We already know that our representation of marine snow in climate models needs revising,” Dr. Cael said. “This study elucidates a way to making one of those necessary revisions. That should improve the accuracy of projected changes in Earth’s carbon cycle.”... 

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