Arctic sea ice is leaving us. We didn’t taken good enough care of it when we had it and it may be too late to convince it to stay. Over the coming decades the specific effects of decreasing sea ice cover will become more apparent. One effect that has not gotten much attention since its discovery in 2011, is the growing phytoplankton blooms under the thinning ice sheets. Phytoplankton require sunlight to grow, and the increased thinning of sea-ice allows for more light transmission through the ice, where the blooms of plankton can grow quickly and more frequently than before. This is a drastic change from the ‘normal’ conditions where sea ice was thicker and reflected the solar rays, having a much a higher albedo than today.
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AuthorsJust two water lovers exploring todays water issues. Archives
July 2017
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