Scientists reveal the colors of the ocean read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/870-scientists-reveal-the-colors-of-the-ocean

Stephanie Dutkiewicz principal research scientist at MIT, noticed that the color of the ocean shifted from place to place.

In her earlier studies, she learned that ocean color varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton (algae) in the area.

A team of MIT researchers and several collaborators from universities around the world to advance the Darwin Project, which aims to model the growth, loss, and movement of phytoplankton around the world, the environments that they inhabit, and how they affect one another.

Dutkiewicz represented as many as 100 different types of phytoplankton, other groups typically model more than five on complex computer models that simulate phytoplankton population dynamics in the ocean and project how those dynamics will change in coming decades.

Producing results which comprise hundreds and thousands of lines of code, are generating the world’s most complex 2-D and 3-D global maps of phytoplankton activity and ocean color.

In the phytoplankton size matters all are microscopic, while individual phytoplankton diameter ranges from 1 micrometer to more than 1,000 micrometers similar to the size difference between a mouse and Manhattan.

Most phytoplankton models usually resolve two phytoplankton types, small and large. So, when the ocean warms to a certain point in the coming decades, the modeled phytoplankton populations appear to shift dramatically, with small ones far outnumbering large ones. In reality, these shifts are expected to occur gradually.

To assess the impact of phytoplankton size and function on the climate, scientists represent the global ocean as a set of location-based grid cells. Within each grid cell, the model solves a set of equations that account for phytoplankton growth, movement, loss, carbon cycling and other population dynamics.

With support from NASA, Dutkiewicz is using the computer model to ground-truth satellite observations of phytoplankton concentrations, which are based on how much light is emitted from the ocean surface. The light is reflected by chlorophyll in phytoplankton, which absorb more blue than green light.

By measuring how much blue versus green light is emitted, the satellites estimate how much chlorophyll is present at a given location. Such estimates assess the level of uncertainty in chlorophyll.

Dutkiewicz says, “Tracking could help us to identify a real, climate change driven signal that stands out from the year-to-year, natural variation in phytoplankton populations across the globe.”