back to article Global warming helps Arctic algae suck CO2

There's good news for folks worried that atmospheric CO2 levels in the Arctic have passed 400ppm for the first time: a vast CO2-sucking phytoplankton bloom has been discovered beneath Arctic ice – and it may thank global warming for its presence. "This wasn't just any phytoplankton bloom," Stanford University marine scientist …

COMMENTS

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  1. Steve Crook

    Fascinating

    Arrigo does say that it's not certain just how tight the link between thinning ice and the algae actually is, it's possible that these blooms could have been going on for a very long time (on a smaller scale) as a seasonal phenomenon taking advantage of the nutrients released in the Arctic summer melt pools. Life is pretty amazing....

  2. Jaymax

    Backronyms

    > another of those increasingly common "backronyms" – ... – Might we please stop this silliness, people?

    eh hem, you might want to re-think that sentiment, or the SPB might start to think about alternative places to lodge LOHAN's rockets for ignition testing....

    1. Ru
      Coat

      Re: Backronyms

      You may find that SPB is mostly about the Increasingly Rambling Obtuse Neologisms, Y'know?

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: Backronyms

      Alternate Rocket Startup test Environment?

      1. Euripides Pants
        Coat

        Re: Backronyms

        In the interest of accuracy, that would be a backsideronym....

        Mine's the one with ARSE Flight Logistics And Planning System.

  3. Spotthelemon

    change of emphasis

    The paper barely mentions global warming, its about the bloom itself & the team are more interested in the effects on the arctic ecosystem, mainly the effect it will have for animals that feed at different ocean levels, - benefit bottom-feeding species, to the detriment of species that feed in the water column.

    asked about the possible increase in the Arctic's ability to sequester carbon Arrigo said the effect is "unlikely to make much difference". "Even if the amount of CO2 going into the Arctic Ocean doubled, it's a blip on a global scale,"

  4. Allan George Dyer
    Coat

    Mammoth blooms?!

    OK, phytoplankton blooms I can understand, but, "also be harboring mammoth blooms"? They think there's herds of submarine hairy pachyderms beneath the ice?

    We are DOOMED... unless the sharks with lasers can deal with them.

  5. itzman

    Well whoda thunk it?

    Something in the ecosystem that teas carbon dioxide flourishes when carbon dioxide gets a teeny bit more prevalent.

    Dangerous. If we stop emitting it they will be so ''mammoth" they will gobble all the CO2 and plunge us into an ice age.

  6. Mr Young
    Coffee/keyboard

    "most intense phytoplankton bloom"?

    I really wish I could speak like a virgin

  7. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Devil

    LOL!

    I can just see the quandry for the Greenpeckers - they want to say this is bad, but then more phytoplankton means more food for krill which means more food for whales like the humpbacks and blue whales. They must be spinning like tops!

    1. Jeebus

      Re: LOL!

      I hear you had a rough time of it in Rochdale, must be annoying to have 11 of your friends arrested.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Re: LOL!

        "I hear you had a rough time of it in Rochdale, must be annoying to have 11 of your friends arrested." Given the sparcity of intelligent thought in the average EDL member, I was rather of the opinion that they were YOUR friends. Besides, aren't you supposed to belive that the Police are just racist c*nts, so why would they be arresting the EDL if that was true? So much amusement from exposing the epic fail that passes as your "beliefs".

        1. Jeebus

          Re: LOL!

          No need for the noose, I'm not black or a Muzza. Relax a little Matt.

    2. Tom 35

      Re: LOL!

      phytoplankton blooms in other more studied locations are often bad news for fish.

    3. billse10
      Coat

      Re: LOL!

      Matt - have you just come up with a perpetual motion machine to rival the cat with the buttered toast on it's back?

    4. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: LOL!

      Krill under ice sheets is in larval form, it is not the krill which is eaten. That's how it overwinters.

      Most of the food chain in Arctic and antarctic water is adapted to the krill larvae going _INTO_ open water, eating phytoplankton there, growing and swarming into adult krill swarms and being eaten there.

      If krill can grow, breed and procreate under the ice without ever hitting the open ocean both polar ecosystems will be in deep sh*t...

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: Re: LOL!

        "Krill under ice sheets is in larval form, it is not the krill which is eaten....." Really? So those whales that feed under the ice, such as the bowhead, which even has an extra thick skull just for breaking through the ice, what exactly are they feeding on under there? Fish fingers?

    5. Scott 19
      Devil

      Re: LOL!

      Hey Matt leave them alone they work in IT so know they are far superior to the average cubical monkey, either that or they just want to feel superior because they’re saving the World and your just taking the p*ss out of it.

      Although it is easy p*ss.

      (So far this Monday morning, I re-plugged a keyboard back in, may the BOFH smile on me like this for the rest of the week and my PFY not forget the T-bags, I here the less spotted Greenpecker likes T-bags).

  8. compdoc

    Maybe the bloom is happening because we've fished out the krill and pretty much everything else that might feed on it.

  9. Triggerfish

    @ Matt

    "I can just see the quandry for the Greenpeckers - they want to say this is bad, but then more phytoplankton means more food for krill which means more food for whales like the humpbacks and blue whales. They must be spinning like tops!"

    Meanwhile the other side are in the quandry of now saying you see algae solves it all, while missing the bit mentioning the ice sheet being thin enough to provide enough light to drive the occurence.

    Rhetoric can be used bith ways.

    Personally I'd prefer some study and science tjhough.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: @ Matt

      ".....the ice sheet being thin enough to provide enough light to drive the occurence....." See, I warned you all it was a bit hard for the AGW crowd to follow. Triggerfish, you lot keep insisting that global warming will keep melting the ice, then that will make the ice even thinner. However, that means more light getting through the ice so more algae to absorb more man-made CO2, which you lot insist is the cause, meaning the warming could slow or stop and then the ice could thicken back again. Essentially, a feedback process. Do you need a diagram? In crayon, maybe?

      1. NomNomNom

        Re: @ Matt

        "However, that means more light getting through the ice so more algae to absorb more man-made CO2, which you lot insist is the cause, meaning the warming could slow or stop and then the ice could thicken back again. Essentially, a feedback process. Do you need a diagram? In crayon, maybe?"

        Geez what fantasy world are you living in? CO2 rise shows no sign of slowing down, if anything it's accelerating.

        1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: @ Matt

          "......Geez what fantasy world are you living in?...." The one with a sense of humour (well, mostly laughing at your expense). Also the one that long ago realised that global warming had SFA to do with man-made CO2, and the planet would continue to warm up and the climate change even if every single human being dropped dead overnight.

  10. Marty
    Alien

    I for one welcome our new submariner hairy pachyderm overlords !

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OMG

    Who would have thought it? Nature has a way of keeping the climate within a cycle?

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