Phytoplankton Changing Along the Antarctic Peninsula
As the cold, dry climate of the western Antarctic Peninsula becomes warmer and more humid, phytoplankton – the bottom of the Antarctic food chain – is decreasing off the northern part the peninsula and increasing further south, Rutgers marine scientists have discovered. In research to be published tomorrow in the journal Science, Martin Montes-Hugo and Oscar Schofield report that levels of phytoplankton off the western Antarctic Peninsula have decreased 12 percent over the past 30 years.
Their paper, Recent Changes in Phytoplankton Communities Associated with Rapid Regional Climate Change Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula, draws on 30 years of satellite data and field studies. Montes-Hugo is a postdoctoral researcher and Schofield is a professor of marine science at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University.
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Antarctica, stretching north to within 640 miles of Tierra del Fuego in South America.
