“The oceans will lose their distinctive color within 80 years,” said the alarming study, conducted by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States of America.
The researchers found that “climate change will lead to changes in phytoplankton, which will affect the color of the oceans.”
“This divergence can be very serious,” commented Stephanie Dutkic, who led the study, adding that “moving one phytoplankton community to another will alter the food webs of many marine organisms.”
What is phytoplankton?
Dr. Abd al-Rahman Hassoun, a researcher for ocean and maritime affairs at the Center for Oceanography in Germany, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that phytoplankton “form microscopic forests in the oceans and seas, and they are different types and sizes.”
Hassoun added, “Phytoplankton or phytoplankton are tiny plants that cannot be seen with the naked eye that are home to the surface of oceans, rivers and lakes, and the life of most marine organisms is not not equal without them, as they work to absorb carbon dioxide from the air, as they are considered the primary food source in the oceans, where it is at the bottom of the food pyramid.
Regarding their types, Hassoun said: “There are many types of plankton, some of which live on silicate materials, through which their own shell is built, while others live on nitrates or phosphates. , and some of them are small in size and cannot be seen with the naked eye.”
He went on to say, “Marine phytoplankton differ in how they are formed, but they are microscopic plants, and they form the marine aquatic forests that we see through satellites and symbolize them with the color of the oceans and decorate them with green and blue colors. , in a process known as (photosynthesis), where plants take advantage of the energy of light. “The sun and its use to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds. Plants provide food and provide oxygen for marine organisms.”
How are the oceans affected?
According to Hassoun, “plankton is the mainstay of the marine food chain, and their modification has direct effects on marine resources”.
Regarding his role and the repercussions of plankton change, Hassoun said:
The changes started in the seas with the types of fish, and this is due to the change in the food chain. The oceans and seas have been dominated for about 1,000 years by types of phytoplankton invisible to the naked eye, strongly affected by changes in climate and the direction of water currents, and these planktons reflect light in a different way. . There are certain areas whose color is closer to green, which means a high production of these planktons, and the green color can change and turn blue. Like all environmental habitats, the oceans are affected by climate change for reasons such as human activities that began with the industrial revolution, which resulted in emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, and high temperatures in the air as well as in the oceans. Carbon dioxide in the air turns into carbonic acid and contributes to the acidification of the oceans, that is, by turning it into water with a high acid concentration. Among the repercussions of climate change, in addition to ocean acidification and rising temperatures, according to Hassoun, the lack of oxygen in certain places negatively affects plankton. Microscopic animal organisms live in the water, and small and large predatory fish feed on this phytoplankton.Climate change has helped replace the type and size of this plankton, which has affected the quality of the food on which they lived. many marine organisms. Some whales eat and live off microscopic plankton, and whenever weather conditions change, the plankton disappears.
Hassoun called for the need to “monitor and control marine environmental variables at local and global levels in order to limit changes and their effects on the environment and living organisms that live in the oceans and seas.”
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