In a new article published by NJ Spotlight News, RCEI affiliates Corday Selden and Joe Gradone detail what they hope to learn on their 25 day ocean expedition into the tropical North Atlantic. Their research focuses on the impact of ocean warming on phytoplankton – microscopic organisms that serve a key role in most marine food chains and in carbon dioxide sequestration – and how natural ocean phenomena such as “salt finger mixing” can interact with those changes.
Selden and Gradone describe salt finger mixing as a diffusive process through which the difference in temperature at different layers in the water can replenish nutrients and foster the growth of phytoplankton, whose population status in turn is an indicator of how well the wider ocean food web is functioning. In the midst of widespread and intensifying climate change, Selden and Gradone’s expedition and findings will help inform future predictions, plans of action, and a better understanding of how underwater life lives in tandem with the abiotic world.
Read more at the full article published by NJ Spotlight News.
