Phytoplankton Bloom in the Norwegian Sea
The waters off Iceland rank among the world’s most productive fisheries. The
reason for the abundance is an ample supply of phytoplankton, the base of the
marine food chain. Like any plant, microscopic phytoplankton need sunlight and
nutrients to survive. Iceland’s coastal waters offer both during the long days
of summer.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying aboard
NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of a large phytoplankton
bloom in the Norwegian Sea, off of Iceland, on July 6, 2013. The range of colors
from milky blue to green suggests that a range of different species make up this
bloom, most likely including diatoms and perhaps chalky white coccolithophores,
says Sergion Signorini, and ocean scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center.
Floating in the water, phytoplankton act like tracers, revealing the course
of mixing currents and the swirling eddies where they clash. A branch of the
North Atlantic Current (the Gulf Stream) flows north, bringing warm Atlantic
water to mix with the cold Arctic currents circling in from the east.
Image Credit: NASA/Jeff
Schmaltz
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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