Each new season brings change. Seasonal change on land is something that we’re familiar with and adjust to regularly. But what happens to billions of plankton in the ocean each season? How do they adjust to changing sunlight patterns and mixing of the water column? And what impact do these tiny critters have on us, so far away on land?
To answer those questions and others, NASA’s North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAMES) mission began its fourth and final deployment, making it the first research mission to conduct an integrated study of all four distinct phases of the world’s largest phytoplankton bloom in the North Atlantic and how they impact the atmosphere.
For those unaware, planktons are the diverse collection of organisms that live in large bodies of water and are unable to swim against a current. They provide a crucial source of food to many large aquatic organisms, such as fish and whales. Claiming that most scientists studying the bloom head to sea during its climax in late spring and early summer, NAMES Deputy Project Scientist Rich Moore said, “We did that, but we also went out during the other seasons to fully capture the minimum and transitions of the bloom."
NAMES research challenges traditional ideas about bloom dynamics and species succession. During previous NAMES deployments, researchers completed 220 research hours aboard an instrumented C-130 aircraft along specific tracks and maneuvers over the North Atlantic, including flyovers of the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute’s (WHOI) Research Vessel Atlantis, which carries more than 50 researchers and crew members.
Planktons are the diverse collection of organisms that live in large bodies of water and are unable to swim against a current.
Image credit: Kill via CC BY-SA 3.0
The ongoing ship deployment is currently collecting observations of ocean biological composition and stocks, aerosol measurements and optical properties of the North Atlantic study area.
The final NAMES study researches the “ascending transition” of the bloom, which occurs after the phytoplankton minimum in February and provides a unique opportunity for researchers aboard Atlantis to do experiments that study growth and decay of the phytoplankton population, the Space agency said in a press advisory. Rates of phytoplankton accumulation are critical for understanding the ocean conditions that lead to phytoplankton growth and its timing, a key to unlocking the environmental drivers and controls of biological dynamics.
According to NASA, because scientists are also interested in the link between the ocean, atmospheric particles, and clouds, they’ve conducted meteorological balloon launches from the ship on a regular basis to capture information relevant to cloud formation processes. By combining global data from NASA satellites with the ship, aircraft, and autonomous assets such as floats, along with laboratory research and balloon data, scientists are able to not only understand the current state of the atmosphere but also how it is evolving over time.
The implication of these findings will be presented in a series of journal publications over the coming year.
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