A tiny ocean powerhouse appears to be less resilient in the face of rising temperatures than previously thought, according University of Washington oceanography researchers.
Prochlorococcus is a single-celled microbe at the very base of the marine food web. Until now, scientists had studied it mostly in labs. But when the UW oceanographers tracked the microbe at sea with new instruments they found that it dies off if the water gets hotter than 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
The microbe is the smallest and most abundant photosynthesizing organism in the ocean. It produces about 10% of the world’s oxygen and forms the foundation of the marine food web.
The UW researchers' computer models estimate that ocean warming could reduce the global population of these phytoplankton by somewhere between 20-50%.
They recently published their findings after spending more than a decade studying it at sea.
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