Blooms in the Baltic
Every summer, phytoplankton – microscopic plant-like organisms –
spread across the North Atlantic, with blooms spanning hundreds and
sometimes thousands of miles. Nutrient-rich, cooler waters tend to
promote more growth among marine plants and phytoplankton than is found
in tropical waters. Blooms this summer off Scandinavia seem to be
particularly intense.
On July 18, 2018, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8
acquired a natural-color image of a swirling green phytoplankton bloom
in the Gulf of Finland, a section of the Baltic Sea. Note how the
phytoplankton trace the edges of a vortex; it is possible that this
ocean eddy is pumping up nutrients from the depths.
Though it is impossible to know the phytoplankton type without
sampling the water, three decades of satellite observations suggest that
these green blooms are likely to be cyanobacteria (blue-green algae),
an ancient type of marine bacteria that capture and store solar energy
through photosynthesis (like plants).
In recent years, the proliferation of algae blooms in the Baltic Sea
has led to the regular appearance of “dead zones” in the basin.
Phytoplankton and cyanobacteria consume the abundant nutrients in the
Baltic ¬and deplete the oxygen. According to researchers from Finland’s
University of Turku, the dead zone this year is estimated to span about
70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles). Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/2uLK4aZ Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
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