Coloring the South Atlantic
Coloring the South Atlantic January 24, 2022 JPEG Phytoplankton are sometimes called “the grass of the sea.” Like green plants on land, these floating, microscopic organisms play several key roles in making life on Earth possible. First, they are a source of food for zooplankton, shellfish, and marine creatures that eventually become food for other, larger creatures. They also produce a sizable amount of the oxygen in our oceans and atmosphere. And phytoplankton help remove carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere, consuming it during photosynthesis and sinking it to the ocean depths in decaying cells and fecal matter from marine life (a phenomenon known as marine snow ). In January 2022, the At...