40 Percent Decline in the Ocean’s Phytoplankton

Researchers have found that phytoplankton – the microscopic plants at the base of the ocean’s food chain – have declined by 40 percent over the past century. The change is the biggest for the global biosphere, with more implications than deforestation, reports Steve Connor for the Independent. Warmer ocean waters could prevent the flow of nutrients, food for the micro plants, from the ocean’s bottom. The little plants provide about half the world’s oxygen supply, and the decline coincides with rising temperatures, though the researchers have not definitively identified climate change as the culprit. More research is required, because phytoplankton populations normally undergo huge fluctuations. Piece by piece, though, evidence piles up that severe climate change is underway, disrupting habitats and adding to many species’ struggle to survive. – YaleGlobal