The first study into the biological response of the upper ocean in the wake of South Pacific cyclones could help predict the impact of warming ocean temperatures, New Zealand researchers believe.
The first study into the biological response of the upper ocean in the wake of South Pacific cyclones could help predict the impact of warming ocean temperatures, New Zealand researchers believe.
Dr Pete Russell, of the University of Otago’s Department of Marine Science, and Dr Christopher Horvat, of the University of Auckland’s Department of Physics, have published a study on the oceanic biological effect of Cyclone Oma which passed near Vanuatu in 2019.
“While Oma was a relatively benign cyclone, it produced a massive phytoplankton bloom in its wake – the single most abnormal event in the history of South Pacific chlorophyll measurements,” Dr Russell says.
“Such an extreme event can produce a large amount of biomass in a part of the ocean that is typically a biological desert. We don’t yet know about the fate of this biomass, but one possibility is that it could end up on the bottom of the ocean, sequestering carbon.”
Read more at University of Otago
Image: Phytoplankton blooms appear similar to this one, captured near New Zealand in 2009.
(PHOTO: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team)
