Thursday, June 7, 2012

Plankton under sea ice may disrupt Arctic food chain

New Scientist: The water beneath a snow-covered expanse of ice 1 metre thick hardly seems like a good home for light-loving creatures. But microscopic phytoplankton, which rely on the sun for their nutrients and form the base of Arctic food webs, have managed to thrive under ice sheets that are thinning as the poles become warmer. The buried "bloom" of phytoplankton - the largest ever found underneath an ice shelf - was four times more concentrated than blooms found in the open ocean. Some say its discovery...

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21893-plankton-under-sea-ice-may-disrupt-arctic-food-chain.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
Enclosure: http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21893/dn21893-2_300.jpg

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