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> The ocean's microscopic, single-celled plant known as phytoplankton produces more oxygen than all forests combined, with marine biologists estimating it contr

> The ocean's microscopic, single-celled plant known as phytoplankton produces more oxygen than all forests combined, with marine biologists estimating it contributes between 50 per cent and 85 per cent of the Earth’s oxygen levels. Holy crap. I didn't know that part. > When there are not enough whales in the ocean, krill consume phytoplankton at an unsustainable rate and threaten the global oxygen supply. Unfortunately, "Burn krill, not rainforests!" isn't catchy enough for a bumper sticker.

papeda 6y ago
Yup! Deliberately fostering phytoplankton growth using "iron fertilization" even has its own Wikipedia article [1]. The idea is that iron, not nutrients, is a limiting factor to phytoplankton growth in some areas, so we could boost phytoplankton just by throwing (a suitable form of) iron in the ocean. IIRC, it's a controversial topic because the lack of a unified regulatory body for oceans makes experimentation difficult, and there are poorly-understood side effects with various algae. Also, wholesale manipulation of an ecosystem for scientific purposes is usually frowned upon (pollution, though, seems to get along just fine...). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization
- superkuh 6y ago
  Maybe for small scales but on massive ocean changing scales the limiting factor isn't iron but instead phosphorous in the top water layer. It would have to be included as well as iron. Ref: DOI 10.1007/s10584-010-9799-4
jtbayly 6y ago
You mean, "Burn krill, not rainforests!" right?
- caseysoftware 6y ago
  Yes, corrected. Thanks. Hadn't had enough coffee yet.
cushychicken 6y ago
Holy crap. I didn't know that part And something like 95% of phytoplankton live in the surface 3 feet of water on the ocean. I.E.,the part of the ocean that gets hit hardest by chemical pollutants. (Especially petrochemicals.)
mrfusion 6y ago
Wouldn’t whales catch as much plankton as krill? It doesn’t seem like they have a way to distinguish.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- usrusr 6y ago
  It's a filtration process, the plankton might be small enough to escape. But even if it doesn't, prey species usually recover faster than predator species.
- Valgrim 6y ago
  Whales fill their mouth wide open with water and spit it out through their baleens, a set of comb-like teeths that filter out everything smaller than a krill. Krills are 1-2 centimeters long and they feed on plankton much smaller than that, so it gets filtered out. Interestingly there is no clear difference between krill and plankton. Krill are small crustacean animals, while plankton encompasses all organisms, animal or algae or protozoan (including jellyfish), that float passively in a body of water, as opposed to nektons, who swim actively. Altough most krills are nektons, some species, such as amphionides, are plankton.
jacobolus 6y ago
For anyone interested in learning about phytoplankton and other microorganisms, I highly recommend the YouTube series Journey to the Microcosmos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2mdmt4JPw&list=PLf3BfsFyWWMGYCZdbEfp2_w0RSCj0gV7X https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2mdmt4JPw&list=PLf3BfsFyWW... For example this video about diatoms, which are responsible for a quarter to half of the oxygen produced on earth, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygty9HxhFK4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygty9HxhFK4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatom Seeing high-quality video of things moving around gives a much more visceral impression than just reading text interspersed with static images, in my opinion.
- splittingTimes 6y ago
  > diatoms produce quarter to half of the oxygen on earth Hmmm so plankton is 50-85% and diatoms are 25-50%? So how much are plants adding?
  - thelibrarian 6y ago
    Diatoms are a type of phytoplankton (one of the most common).
VBprogrammer 6y ago
> Holy crap. I didn't know that part. A point that is easily missed is that you could burn all of the biomass currently on the earth and it would do little to the oxygen levels. Oxygen has been contributed to our atmosphere by millennia of forestry and phytoplankton.

papeda 6y ago

Yup! Deliberately fostering phytoplankton growth using "iron fertilization" even has its own Wikipedia article [1]. The idea is that iron, not nutrients, is a limiting factor to phytoplankton growth in some areas, so we could boost phytoplankton just by throwing (a suitable form of) iron in the ocean. IIRC, it's a controversial topic because the lack of a unified regulatory body for oceans makes experimentation difficult, and there are poorly-understood side effects with various algae. Also, wholesale manipulation of an ecosystem for scientific purposes is usually frowned upon (pollution, though, seems to get along just fine...). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization

superkuh 6y ago
Maybe for small scales but on massive ocean changing scales the limiting factor isn't iron but instead phosphorous in the top water layer. It would have to be included as well as iron. Ref: DOI 10.1007/s10584-010-9799-4

jtbayly 6y ago

You mean, "Burn krill, not rainforests!" right?

caseysoftware 6y ago
Yes, corrected. Thanks. Hadn't had enough coffee yet.

cushychicken 6y ago

Holy crap. I didn't know that part And something like 95% of phytoplankton live in the surface 3 feet of water on the ocean. I.E.,the part of the ocean that gets hit hardest by chemical pollutants. (Especially petrochemicals.)

mrfusion 6y ago

Wouldn’t whales catch as much plankton as krill? It doesn’t seem like they have a way to distinguish.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
usrusr 6y ago
It's a filtration process, the plankton might be small enough to escape. But even if it doesn't, prey species usually recover faster than predator species.
Valgrim 6y ago
Whales fill their mouth wide open with water and spit it out through their baleens, a set of comb-like teeths that filter out everything smaller than a krill. Krills are 1-2 centimeters long and they feed on plankton much smaller than that, so it gets filtered out. Interestingly there is no clear difference between krill and plankton. Krill are small crustacean animals, while plankton encompasses all organisms, animal or algae or protozoan (including jellyfish), that float passively in a body of water, as opposed to nektons, who swim actively. Altough most krills are nektons, some species, such as amphionides, are plankton.

jacobolus 6y ago

For anyone interested in learning about phytoplankton and other microorganisms, I highly recommend the YouTube series Journey to the Microcosmos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2mdmt4JPw&list=PLf3BfsFyWWMGYCZdbEfp2_w0RSCj0gV7X https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS2mdmt4JPw&list=PLf3BfsFyWW... For example this video about diatoms, which are responsible for a quarter to half of the oxygen produced on earth, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygty9HxhFK4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygty9HxhFK4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatom Seeing high-quality video of things moving around gives a much more visceral impression than just reading text interspersed with static images, in my opinion.

splittingTimes 6y ago
> diatoms produce quarter to half of the oxygen on earth Hmmm so plankton is 50-85% and diatoms are 25-50%? So how much are plants adding?
- thelibrarian 6y ago
  Diatoms are a type of phytoplankton (one of the most common).

VBprogrammer 6y ago

> Holy crap. I didn't know that part. A point that is easily missed is that you could burn all of the biomass currently on the earth and it would do little to the oxygen levels. Oxygen has been contributed to our atmosphere by millennia of forestry and phytoplankton.