Vast plankton bloom off New Zealand
BLOOMING LOVELY: Large blooms of plantlike organisms called phytoplankton seen in New Zealand waters from a NASA satellite.
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A vast plankton bloom occurring east of New Zealand has been captured by satellite.
NASA released the picture taken on October 25 showing the large blooms of plantlike organisms called phytoplankton.
It has occurred off the east coast where cold rivers of water have branched off from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow north past the South Island and converge with warmer waters flowing south past the North Island.
"The surface waters of this meeting place are New Zealand's most biologically productive," NASA says in a statement.
Phytoplankton use chlorophyll and other pigments to absorb sunlight for photosynthesis, and when they grow in large numbers, they change the way the ocean surface reflects sunlight.
Caught up in eddies and currents, the blooms create intricate patterns of blues and greens that spread across thousands of square kilometers of the sea surface.
Especially bright blue areas may indicate the presence of phytoplankton called coccolithophores, which are coated with calcium-carbonate (chalk) scales that are very reflective. The duller greenish-brown areas of the bloom may be diatoms, which have a silica-based covering.
In addition to their importance as the foundation of the ocean food web, phytoplankton play a key role in the climate because, like plants on land, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When they die, they sink to the ocean floor where the carbon they took from the atmosphere is stored for thousands of years.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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I, for one, welcome our plankton overlords.
wow Hellen #29. that's not a little paranoid or anything.
@ Cam #15: Phytoplankton causes about half the photosynthesis on earth. There has been a persistent decrease in phytoplankton in the oceans over the past ten years. There is expected to be a rise in plankton nearer the ice caps but not enough to compensate for the overall decrease. The decrease between 1999 and 2004 alone meant that 190 million tonnes of carbon were not absorbed by the tiny plants and converted into organic matter. Yes I can safely say that the "high priests" cottoned onto reality a long time before you read this article. Still, there's no current shortage of sand to stick one's head into is there?
Whales don't eat phytoplankton, they eat zooplankton (which in turn eat phytoplankton). A whale wouldn't want to eat phytoplankton because they have microscopic silica spikes for defence.
Sorry guys whales eat zoo-plankton.... tiny creatures that feed on the phyto-plankton which are actually tiny plants
I can see my house!
@ Ben #32 These scientists don't actually know what they are talking about. There are many many eminent scientists who disagree with the whole "climate change is caused by man/women" theory. That's right 'theory', because it is as yet unproven and is simply a popular movement. He who shouts loudest is not necessarily correct. Thousands of highly regarded scientists have signed a document stating that this theory is not a reality and is based on conjecture. The planets been warming and cooling for millennia before industry was even a dream!
Who is to blame? Global warming? Dirty dairy farmers? And surely you should be speculating about the number of dogs that could be killed by this stuff?
Apparently the plankton don't watch the news. Or they would know that NZ is apparently the worlds fattest nation now, and would steer clear before they become fodder.
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The plankton look just like traditional Maori designs, especially the koru. What I wanna know is how did they know what those look like from space????