Studies show dramatic decrease in plankton as planet warms

by DarkSyde

New studies show that as much as 40 percent of the ocean's critical phytoplankton have disappeared.

    In the long-term, nothing predicted the numbers of phytoplankton better than the surface temperature of the seas. Phytoplankton need sunlight to grow, so they’re constrained to the upper layers of the ocean and depends on nutrients welling up from below. But warmer waters are less likely to mix in this way, which starves the phytoplankton and limits their growth.