Louisa T-L Current Event post

Name of article: Scientists Identify Plankton from Space

URL of artical: https://student.societyforscience.org/article/scientists-identify-plankton-space?mode=topic&context=60

Publication: Student Society for Science

Article Author: Bethany Brookshire

Publication date: 7:00AM, DECEMBER 1, 2015

It was recently discovered that red tides can be spotted from space. This is important because red tides can be toxic threats to the ocean. Red tides are blooms of plankton. A bloom is when plankton reproduce rabidly and in a short period of time. They can appear red, brown or green but they are always called red tides. Scientists used to search for red tides by taking water samples and they would go out once a month and often could miss sudden blooms of plankton or red tides - they usually miss them, even huge ones.

Here’s how scientists learned they can spot them from space. A camera called the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) analyzes wavelengths of light. This camera was aboard the International Space Station. It is a very strong camera. It took a picture of Long Island sound. Because this camera was so strong, it was able to detect a change in the light in the water which indicated a bloom of plankton, a red tide. At the same time a camera took this picture, Dierssen was studying the image and her colleague was out on the water and took a sample from the Long Island sound. Heidi Dierssen works at the University of Connecticut. It took place on Long Island Sound, that is the area of water separating New York and Connecticut.

Although this particular red tide wasn’t harmful, it was good to learn that you can notice these blooms from space. In the future, scientists can use images satellites in space to find blooms and then go to that area of the ocean to collect samples and learn more about the plankton and why it blooms when it does.

“Ships miss these big events,” Deirssen says. With spying eyes in space, “We can find out a lot about what’s growing in the ocean. It can help us find out why [plankton] bloom when they do.”

In class we used Eco-Becker to do simulations about the algae, zooplankton, trout and pike. When there wasn’t a lot of trout, the zooplankton and algae would sometimes bloom and they would make the water toxic and block sunlight from other animals and plants in the water. It is pretty interesting that scientist discovered you can see the red tide from space because the zooplankton emits a light that is visible in space. The plankton that gave off the yellow light (energy) was a type of zooplankton called Mesodinium rubrum. Like we learned in class, zooplankton eats algae and keeps the algae’s chloroplasts, using it to get extra energy from the sun. It emits a yellowish glow that was seen in space.

This discovery is important because it will help scientists learn more about the ocean and find the red tides when they are happening. Viewing pictures from space isn’t everything - scientists will still have to take samples to really understand and study it. Even though the HICO is no longer in action, this is still a very important discovery.