from Hacker News

Scots research finds Atlantic plankton all but wiped out

by mealkh on 7/18/22, 8:48 AM with 46 comments

• by carapace on 7/18/22, 3:14 PM

  The actual report is here (I think? It might be a preliminary report?)

  It seems the primary message is "CO2 reduction won’t even stop climate change ... we have not fixed the primary root cause – the destruction of nature by toxic chemicals, and substances such as plastic."

  https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4099018

  > Pollution from the Congo, Gambia and Amazon from municipal waste, agricultural run-off and deforestation has caused an explosion in the growth of pelagic Sargassum seaweed. It is estimated that, each year, 20 million tonnes of this weed are growing in the Atlantic Ocean - that’s more weed than plastic by weight.

  > The smell of the ocean comes from coccolithophores, and they are in the air we breathe, our water and our food, but if their numbers are depleted, they will most likely be replaced by toxic dinoflagellates. Already we are seeing HABS, hazardous algae blooms around the world which are killing people living next to the ocean. This is coupled with increased levels of ciguatera disease caused by dinoflagellate contaminated fish. Health authorities are now recommended that any fish from tropical water over 3kg in size should not be consumed

• by AbrahamParangi on 7/18/22, 1:01 PM

  This is absolute garbage. Saying the plankton are gone is incredibly unlikely and requires extraordinary evidence. We can see plankton from space https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/globalmaps/data/MY1DMM... and what we see in no way correlates with “the plankton is all gone”.

• by alophawen on 7/18/22, 12:37 PM

  Luckily we have all the plankton in the oceans making oxygen for us now that rain forest has been deforested for soy beans and cow farms.

  Oh wait.

• by mealkh on 7/18/22, 8:59 AM

  I have to say, this is really concerning. I assumed it was bad, but this sounds really REALLY bad. How would we even go about attempting to coordinate a response to this? Strongarming polluting countries into enforcing compliance? Massive economic uplift projects / infrastructure investments for waste treatment and new materials? Ban of products, trying to catch the job loss somehow? I'm at my wit's end.

• by ratboy666 on 7/18/22, 7:24 PM

  Oh, really -

  Phytoplankton bloom with 700000 cells per liter density is visible to the naked eye.

  This gives the colour (red, green, or brown) on the sea surface. This means that the satellite maps showing visible blooms may directly repudiate the article. Or not... Not my field of expertise.