Food for Thought: Primary Productivity and Global Geochemical Cycles
Thanks to recent breakthroughs in our ability to detect and analyze organisms much smaller than any studied in the past, scientists are now looking at a broad range of microbial life forms in the ocean. As part of this process, it's become much more...
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity and Climate
Phytoplankton play an important if indirect role in regulating the chemistry of the ocean and the atmosphere system. They do this through their contribution to the carbon cycle, taking carbon dioxide with them when they die and sink to the deep ocea...
Food for Thought: Global Patterns of Primary Productivity
Phytoplankton tend to concentrate in areas where the conditions for their growth and reproduction are optimal. Some of the most productive waters include the Antarctic and the North Atlantic during the springtime.
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity, Carbon Dioxide and the Role of Humans
Excessive amounts of nutrients applied to lawns, agricultural fields and farms can lead to what scientists call nuisance blooms of algae. When that matter decomposes and sinks into the deeper layers of the coastal ocean, it uses up the available oxy...
Food for Thought: Conditions Required for Photosynthesis
The first step in the primary production process is photosynthesis. It can only take place if certain critical conditions are met, including the presence of light and chemical nutrients. Temperature also plays a role, with reactions proceeding more ...
Food for Thought: Transfer of Energy, The
While the term "food chain" is still used by some to describe the transfer of energy between organisms, others contend that the complex nature of this process is better described by the word "web," rather than "chain."
Food for Thought: Primary Producers and Photosynthesis
Primary producers are marine organisms so small that most of them can't be seen individually without magnification. But despite their small size, primary producers are extremely important. They take energy from other sources-primarily the sun-and us...