plankton news stories on Newser

Rare Right Whales Flock to Cape Cod

Polly Davis Doig — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:21:42 CDT

There are only 473 North Atlantic right whales on the planet, but almost half of them have been spotted gorging themselves on an unusual feast off the coast of Cape Cod this year. "The current must be piling the plankton up," a scientist with the Center for Coastal Studies tells...

Latest Arctic Warning Sign: Early Blooms of Plankton

Matt Cantor — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:12:51 CST

Melting Arctic ice has spurred tiny organisms in the region to bloom far earlier, a study suggests—a shift which could have disastrous results for the entire Arctic ecosystem. Phytoplankton are at the root of the food web there: zooplankton subsist on them, fish eat the zooplankton, birds eat the...

Great Blue Whales Scarf 500K Calories Per Mouthful

Polly Davis Doig — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 09:59:52 CST

The blue whale is the most mammoth creature ever to grace the planet, so it might behoove us puny little humans to pay attention to how it sustains its 100-ton-plus mass. Scientist Jeremy Goldbogen monitored some 265 great blues to determine their feeding efficiency (calories expended versus calories gained), reports...

Rising Sea Temperatures Killing Vital Algae

Nick McMaster — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:59:36 CDT

Rising sea temperatures are killing phytoplankton, the microscopic organisms that feed the lower rungs of the food chain in the world's oceans and create much of our oxygen, scientists say. Researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia used a combination of old records and newer satellite images to determine a...

Crazy Carp Spark Great Lakes Brouhaha

Polly Davis Doig — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:47:07 CST

Michigan sued neighboring Illinois last week , a most un-neighborly move aimed at blocking the invasive Asian carp from the Great Lakes—and re-reversing the flow of the Chicago River. The case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, notes the Washington Post , and resurrects another from 1922 over...

Geo-Engineers Not Quite Ready to Save Earth

Wesley Oliver — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:36:01 CST

Their proposals to combat global warming may sound like science fiction, but geo-engineers insist they can save the planet. Two new reports show that while that may be the case, the science has a long way to go, the Economist reports. The burgeoning field posits that humans can cool the...

Early Plankton Blooming May Starve Ocean Creatures

Rob Quinn — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:23:19 CST

A vast and colorful explosion of life in the Arctic Sea—the sudden, unprecedented blossoming of phytoplankton prompted by warming waters—could spell death for untold numbers of creatures, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Phytoplankton, a microscopic but vital part of the food chain, is blooming—and swiftly dying—at...

Green Groups Oppose Plan to Curb CO2 With Plankton

Laila Weir — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:20:57 CST

An environmental coalition today came out against a project that hopes to slow the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, by stimulating ocean plankton to consume the global warming-linked greenhouse gas. The groups decried the plan by an Australian company to pump nutrients into the sea between the Philippines...

Global Warming Battle Goes Out to Sea

J. Kelman — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:10:30 CDT

Plankton may hold the key to solving global warming—or so say Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are investing heavily in the idea. Scientists will dump several tons of plankton-producing iron into the ocean to see if the microscopic organisms will, as they expect, suck CO2 from the atmosphere and carry...