Researchers Link Ocean Organisms With Increased Cloud Cover And Potential Climate Change

Atmospheric scientists have reported a new and potentially important mechanism by which chemical emissions from ocean phytoplankton may influence the formation of clouds that reflect sunlight away from our planet. Discovery of the new link between clouds and the biosphere grew out of efforts to explain increased cloud cover observed over an area of the Southern Ocean where a large bloom of phytoplankton was occurring. Based on satellite data, the researchers hypothesized that airborne particles produced by oxidation of the chemical isoprene - which is emitted by the phytoplankton - may have contributed to a doubling of cloud droplet concentrations seen over a large area of ocean off the eastern coast of South America...