Arctic discovery: Massive algae bloom raises crucial (Global Warming) questions

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 8, 2012 | Amy Hubbard

[Zakeet]

NASA has revealed its discovery of a massive algae bloom under the slowly diminishing Arctic ice -- a finding that made scientists' eyes pop. But does this never-before-seen phenomenon change the fate of this microscopic algae?

Not long ago, this crucial plant life -- which produces much of the world's oxygen -- was reported in a century-long tailspin.

Here's the back story.

The same year that NASA researchers launched the Icescape expedition to the Arctic -- the project that resulted in NASA's astounding new discovery -- there was a dire report on the world's phytoplankton.

A Canadian team said in the journal Nature, as The Times reported in July 2010, that the world's phytoplankton had been disappearing at a rate of about 1% a year for the previous 100 years.

"A global decline of this magnitude? It's quite shocking," Daniel Boyce, Dalhousie University marine scientist and lead author of the 2010 study, told The Times.

Phytoplankton -- the basis of the marine food chain -- "are key to the whole ecosystem," he said. "In terms of climate changes, the effect on fisheries, we don't know exactly what these effects will be."

Could his latest discovery of a mass of phytoplankton in the Arctic signal a turnaround for this crucial organism?

The jury's out.

[bgill]

[Gumdrop]

WOW! What a wonderful sight. Just imagine how much oil this algae will generate when Obozo’s green energy loons figure out how to do it!!!!!

[ully2]

Isn’t producing more CO2 kinda like watering the lawn? More junk in the air the more grass we get, I’d vote for that I like green lawns.

[ully2]

Holly Crap, its eating up all our CO2, gotta stop that or our story goes plop!!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The carbon dioxide and minerals to feed these Arctic blooms most likely comes from volcanic eruptions under the ice.

“Arctic Volcanoes Found Active at Unprecedented Depths”(2008)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html

Algae would be very receptive to massive amounts of CO2 and nitrous oxide gases trapped under the ice, as this would be pure nutrients.

Importantly, the upwelling of warm water from such volcanoes could go a long way in explaining thinning Arctic ice as well.

[P.O.E.]

[fireman15]

From the article,

“NASA has revealed its discovery of a massive algae bloom under the slowly diminishing Arctic ice.”

Arctic ice extent is extremely cyclic but has been increasing for the past several years, since a low in 2007. So how do the warmists react to this data. Generally they try to ignore the more recent data. But there have also been many articles in the last several years trying to explain why there is more arctic and antarctic ice in a “warming world”. In these articles they usually assure us that a rapid decline is just around the corner.

[Bigh4u2]

“But a projection like this requires that you accurately measure the phytowhaterver count every year. To my knowledge, there was not/is not a yearly plankton census commencing in 1912.”

So, you picked number 2....

:0)

[Mogollon]

Plumes of algae most likely due to thermal vents on floor of Arctic ocean. Much to complicated for loons like Gore to understand though.

Arctic Thermal Vents