The 'blue sea' is turning into a 'green sea' due to climate change
When we think of the color of the ocean, we think of ``blue,'' but a research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the UK's National Oceanographic Center has found that the color of the ocean is gradually changing to green due to factors such as an increase in plankton due to climate change. revealed by the analysis.
Global climate-change trends detected in indicators of ocean ecology | Nature
Study: The ocean's color is changing as a consequence of climate change | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://news.mit.edu/2023/study-oceans-color-changing-climate-change-0712
New study shows effect of climate change on ocean color | National Oceanography Center
https://noc.ac.uk/news/new-study-shows-effect-climate-change-ocean-colour
Observing the increase and decrease of plankton in the ocean is useful for evaluating the impact of climate change on the ocean. However, it is nearly impossible to visually count the number of plankton around the world. Therefore, the research team derived changes in the amount of chlorophyll contained in plankton based on data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), a sensor that can measure chlorophyll concentration on board the artificial satellite Aqua . , we decided to estimate the increase and decrease of plankton.
Analysis of 20 years of data collected by MODIS revealed that chlorophyll concentrations have increased in 56% of the ocean over the past 20 years. In the figure below, the points where the chlorophyll concentration is increasing are filled in red, and the darker the color, the greater the increase in the chlorophyll concentration. Looking at the figure, you can see that chlorophyll concentrations are increasing mainly in sea areas at low latitudes.
The increase or decrease of plankton in the ocean also affects the change in the color of the ocean, and as the number of plankton increases, the ocean turns green. For this reason, the research team wrote in their research paper, ``As an overall trend, the color of the ocean has changed to green in low latitude regions over the past 20 years.''
In addition, the research team determined that the number of plankton in the ocean is increasing due to the increase in chlorophyll concentration in the ocean, indicating that the ocean ecosystem may be undergoing major changes due to climate change. pointing out.
Related Posts:
in Science, Posted by log1o_hf