NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Arctic Sea Ice Decline Shakes Up Ocean Ecosystems

Red represents regions of open water in 2007 that were ice covered in 2006, much of which has never been ice-free for as long as measurements have been available. Credit: NASA/Stanford University
Uncertain as to how phytoplankton -- microscopic marine plants on which much of ocean life depends -- would respond to Arctic sea ice decline, researchers took advantage of NASA satellite images to show that the microscopic floating plants are teeming in regions of recent ice melt.

The explosion in phytoplankton populations is the result of new open-water habitat and, more significantly, an extended ice-free growing season, biological oceanographer Kevin Arrigo and colleagues from Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., reported last month in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.

Since phytoplankton cycle carbon dioxide into organic compounds and also form the base of the marine food web, the researchers believe the booming populations could have complex ecological consequences.

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