ukco2guy
Member
BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10781621
Plankton decline across oceans as waters warm? Any thoughts guys?
Cheers,
Plankton decline across oceans as waters warm? Any thoughts guys?
Cheers,
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Anyone seen this on the news?
- Thread starter ukco2guy
- Start date
Hi all,
It is one of those total unknowns, you can easily measure the phytoplankton density at any time and place, but linking that to any single event, process or action is almost impossible. It doesn't mean there is little point in doing the research (it maybe the most important thing we do), but I don't expect it to produce a definitive answer any time soon.
Headline writers want a black and white world, "Climate change is guilty!", but the Environmental Sciences aren't like that, this is a huge an complex multi-factorial issue, where cycles and processes may interact in a multitude of differing and unexpected ways over huge spatial and temporal time scales. All you can do is collect the data and then develop & refine models based upon the probability of events occurring, but a lot of this will still be guesswork, albeit the best guess of scientists working in this particular field.
Bit more detail here:
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7187>
We can use proxies (Radiolarian, Diatom and Foramanifera microfossils & Saharan dust deposits etc. from sediment cores) to estimate the climate, productivity and surface temperature of the Ocean back for several million years, but even then we are looking at a tiny fraction of the geological time scale, and we don't have weather records etc.
I used to have a colleague who worked in this particular field.
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Fe...ntCores/paleoclimatology_sediment_cores_2.php>
If we carry on recording data and building and refining computer models for the next 10,00 years (still a geological instant), we might have a bit more idea. If we are still around by then, and still recording, you will be able to say that the biosphere is a bit more resilient than we thought it was, but not necessarily a lot else.
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_Understanding/>
cheers Darrel
It is one of those total unknowns, you can easily measure the phytoplankton density at any time and place, but linking that to any single event, process or action is almost impossible. It doesn't mean there is little point in doing the research (it maybe the most important thing we do), but I don't expect it to produce a definitive answer any time soon.
Headline writers want a black and white world, "Climate change is guilty!", but the Environmental Sciences aren't like that, this is a huge an complex multi-factorial issue, where cycles and processes may interact in a multitude of differing and unexpected ways over huge spatial and temporal time scales. All you can do is collect the data and then develop & refine models based upon the probability of events occurring, but a lot of this will still be guesswork, albeit the best guess of scientists working in this particular field.
Bit more detail here:
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7187>
We can use proxies (Radiolarian, Diatom and Foramanifera microfossils & Saharan dust deposits etc. from sediment cores) to estimate the climate, productivity and surface temperature of the Ocean back for several million years, but even then we are looking at a tiny fraction of the geological time scale, and we don't have weather records etc.
I used to have a colleague who worked in this particular field.
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Fe...ntCores/paleoclimatology_sediment_cores_2.php>
If we carry on recording data and building and refining computer models for the next 10,00 years (still a geological instant), we might have a bit more idea. If we are still around by then, and still recording, you will be able to say that the biosphere is a bit more resilient than we thought it was, but not necessarily a lot else.
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_Understanding/>
cheers Darrel
