Do you notice the turquoise “splotch” of water in the picture to the left? The average person may attribute this aesthetic turquoise spot to shallow depths or may not think much of it at all. Surprisingly, this “splotch” is actually made up of a plethora of single-celled organisms called coccolithophores. This random abundance of coccolithophores is called a “coccolithophore bloom”. These blooms develop as a result of various factors in the environment. Plotting the biomass of coccolithophores from current ocean temperatures to year 2100 ocean temperatures revealed a seemingly random distribution of increases and decreases of biomass. My goal is to make sense of this distribution through specific analysis of coccolithophore data and research on the plankton taxa and to contribute to the understanding of how coccolithophores and these blooms correspond to carbon cycling within the ocean.

Skylab 4 Earth View - Plankton blooms in the Falkland Current east of Argentina coast

Globally, the distribution of coccolithophores follows a similar pattern to the distribution of phytoplankton organisms grouped as a whole. Majority of coccolithophores are centralized in the northern and southern oceanic regions, as well as some northern and southern coastal regions. Little to no coccolithophores are found in the Pacific gyres, central Atlantic and central Indian ocean. This distribution of coccolithophores on a global scale can be attributed to nutrients availability in the oceanic regions. Coccolithophores generally are able to thrive in water that is nutrient depleted. For example, the Atlantic ocean and southern Indian ocean have lower nutrient levels compared to the Pacific Ocean. Correspondingly, we can see that coccolithophores thrive especially in these regions, namely the northern Atlantic region and southern Indian ocean, compared to the Pacific ocean, where we see significantly less biomass of coccolithophores. Upon initially looking at the Coccolithophore Current World Temperature plot (top) and the Year 2100 World Temperature plot (middle), variation between the two is not apparent. Although, the Difference plot (bottom) contradicts this visual conclusion immensely. Throughout the ocean, specifically within the northern and southern oceans, there is significant patchiness in terms of increases and decreases of biomass over time. This distribution is comparatively unique in relation to the distributions of other types of phytoplankton. I hypothesize that these random increases are due to coccolithophore blooms developing as a result of competition structures and decreasing nutrients within the world’s oceans. To explore this further, I am analyzing the specific southern Indian ocean region.

To read more about this, click on one of the images to the right!