Seattle – For decades, the scientists believed that Proclorococcus, the smallest and the height of the plant plankton on Earth, will flourish in a warmer world. But a new research indicates microscopic bacteria, which are mainly formed Marine food network It helps in organizing the planet climate, and it will decrease sharply with the heating of the seas.
The two study was published In the magazine, microbiology in the Prochlorococcus magazine found that the population of Brooklyworocos can shrink by half in the next 75 years if the surface water exceeds about 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27.8 degrees Celsius). Many tropical and semi -tropical Sea surface temperatures are already heading above the average It is expected to regularly exceed 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 ° C) during the same period.
“These are the main quarantine – very important,” said Francois Ribelite, Associate Professor of Researcher at the University of Washington University of Washington and the head of the study. “And when the main stone type decreases in abundance, it always has consequences for the environment and biological diversity. The food network will change.”
Prochlorococcus inhabits up to 75 % of sunlight water and produces about five planet oxygen through optical representation. And most importantly, Ribalet said, they convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into food at the base of the marine ecosystem.
He said: “In the tropical ocean, nearly half of the food is produced by Prochlorococcus.” “Hundreds of species depend on these men.”
Although other vegetable plankton forms may move and help compensate them for the loss of oxygen and food, Ribalet has warned that they are not perfect alternatives. “Development has made this very specific interaction,” he said. “It is clear that this will have an impact on this very unique system that has been created.”
The results of contracts are challenged by the assumptions that Proclorococcus will flourish with the rise in water temperature. These predictions, however, are based on limited data from the laboratory cultures. In this study, Ribalet and his team tested water samples while passing the Pacific Ocean for a decade.
More than 100 research trips – equivalent to six flights worldwide – calculated about 800 billion individual cells taken from samples per kilometer. At his laboratory at the University of Washington, Ribaleet Seaflow showed a box filled with tubes, wires and blue laser hole. The device, which is specially designed, is constantly with sea water, allowing the team to calculate the microbes in the actual time. “We have returned more than Prochlorococcus more than stars in the Milky Way,” said Ribaleet.
Paul Perub, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who studies Prochlorococcus but did not participate in the work, said that the breadth of data is “pioneer.” He said that the results are suitable for what is known about the simplified genome of the microbe, which makes it less adaptive to rapid environmental changes.
He said: “They are at the base of the food mesh, and they feed everything else – fish eat things that eat vegetarian plankton and eat fish.” “When changes are made on the planet that affects these organisms that mainly feed us, they will have severe consequences.”
Ribalet said that to test whether Prochlorococcus may develop to withstand the hotter conditions, the Ribaleet team manufactured a virtual strain that endures heat, but even those that “will not be sufficient to resist the warmer temperature if greenhouse emissions continue to rise.”
He stressed that the study expectations are conservative and do not explain the effects of plastic pollution or other environmental pressures. “We have already tried to offer the best scenario,” said Ribaleet. “In fact, things may be worse.”
Stephen Biliner, associate professor at Wilsley College, said the expected decreases are “scary but reasonable.” He pointed out that Prochlorococcus is part of the “invisible forests” of the ocean – small creatures that most people do not think, but they are necessary to survive.
“Half of all optical acting occurs in the oceans,” Bilinner said. “The volume of the potential effect is a kind of amazing.”
Biller, Berube and Ribalet said that although other microbes may be somewhat compensated, the wider risks to biological diversity and fisheries are real.
“We know what drives global warming. There is no discussion between the scientific community,” said Ribaleet. “We need to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”
The results hope will attract more attention to the tropical oceans, which can serve as natural laboratories for warning and warning signs of environmental collapse.
“For the first time, I want to be wrong. I would like to be wrong,” he said. “But these are data dependent results.”
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