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Phytoplankton blooms spring up in the Arctic during the summer, when the sun isconstantly above the horizon. Scientists have largely assumed thatthe growth and amount of phytoplankton was negligible in watersbeneath the ice there, although there were hints of phytoplanktonblooms under the ice in the Barents and Beaufort seas and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . "As someone who has been studying polar marine ecosystems for25 years, I had always thought that the idea of under-icephytoplankton blooms was nonsense," said researcher KevinArrigo, a biological oceanographer at Stanford University in California . "There is simply not enough light getting through the iceinto the ocean for them to grow." As it turns out, phytoplankton not only flourishes under thick layers of ice , but grows in numbers about four times higher under the ice thanin the open water. "The idea that phytoplankton can not only bloom under3-foot-thick ice but that they can reach numbers that put theiropen-water counterparts to shame was a complete surprise,"Arrigo told OurAmazingPlanet. "It means we have to rethinkmany of our ideas about how the Arctic Ocean ecosystemsfunction." Phytoplankton surprise Arrigo and his colleagues were in the Arctic on the ICESCAPE cruise ICESCAPE standing for Impacts of Climate on EcoSystems andChemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment to study how oceanlife was responding to recent declines in sea ice levels. "Most of the difficulties in conducting the research wererelated to bashing through the ice to get to our study areas,"Arrigo said. "In one instance, it took our icebreaker, theUSCGC Healy, more than eight hours to go three ship lengths. Wewere surrounded by sea ice more than 15 feet [4.5 meters] thick andI thought we would never get out." [ Images: Icebreaker in Action ] "As the ship moved from the open water into the ice pack, theinstrument that tells us how much phytoplankton are in the waterstarted to produce very high numbers," Arrigo said. "Ithought this was odd since there shouldn't be phytoplankton underthe ice. I actually feared that our instrument wasmalfunctioning.". The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China High Power Led Flashlights , Carbon-zinc Batteries, and more. For more , please visit Rechargeable Lead Acid Batteries today!
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