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Increased Carbon Dioxide Levels Lead to Growth of Planktons in Oceans

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Nov 30, 2015 05:00 PM EST

A study has been published in the Journal of Science by the Marine Scientists explaining the fact that has caused the rising of planktons in the oceans. According to the research, due to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the water and the atmosphere, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of planktons. The researchers discovered that the single-celled algae and coccolithophores are amongst the many species that have witness a 10x increase in the oceans all over the world in 2010. This reveals that the free-living organisms with varied reproductive and nutritional modes have increased from 2% to more than 20% in 2010, 90s being the time that has witnessed the highest spike, reports The Hoop News.

Anand Gnanadesikan, associate professor in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins, said that marine development has been noticed and it happening sooner than it should. "Something strange is happening here, and it's happening much more quickly than we thought it should," Anand Gnanadesikan, co-author of the study, said in a press release. "What is worrisome, is that our result points out how little we know about how complex ecosystems function."

To track the growth of planktons in the ocean, the researchers examined the continuous plankton recorder survey data from the North Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean from the time of 1960s. According to their findings, due to increased levels of carbon dioxide, the global warming in the oceans is causing the population of planktons, especially the coccolithophores, to rise, reported Phys.org. "Our statistical analyses on field data from the CPR point to carbon dioxide as the best predictor of the increase" in coccolithophores, Rivero-Calle said. "The consequences of releasing tons of CO2 over the years are already here and this is just the tip of the iceberg."

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