The balance to Earth’s delicate ecosystem lies in the fate of microscopic underwater plants living in the North Pole — where NASA has been monitoring them with a satellite laser.
On Monday, NASA released a study that culminated a decade’s worth of data and imagery giving new insight into the boom-and-bust cycles of polar phytoplankton — a building block to the entire coastal and oceanic food chain.
The results showed that even the slightest environmental changes in the polar food webs significantly influence the microalgae, which also have another significant impact on the environment with their ability, through photosynthesis, to suck out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“It’s really important for us to understand what controls these boom-and-bust cycles, and how they might change in the future so we can better evaluate the implications on all other parts of the food web,” Michael Behrenfeld, a marine plankton expert at Oregon State University, said in a NASA press release.
For a long time, these teeny green plants were difficult to monitor. Typically, only satellite sensors that can measure light reflected off the ocean’s surface are used to check the phytoplankton levels. So only clear and sunny days were optimal for testing — which proved problematic for the dark waters of the North Pole.
But NASA’s new laser gave researchers a better view.
“One of the things about this study is that we used a tool we’ve never used before,” Behrenfeld told The Post.
In 2006, NASA launched the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) — a giant laser attached to a satellite that can beam through darkness, fog and clouds to illuminate the polar phytoplankton.
“CALIOP was a game-changer,” said Chris Hostetler, a research scientist at the Langley Research Center.
The study showed that environmental changes — like melting polar ice caps — and the balance of predators and prey are having an equal effect on the plant’s cycles.
“One of the findings from this study is that yes, the amount of ice cover is one of the factors that influences the productions of these polar systems,” said Behrenfeld. “But so is the subtle balance between the phytoplankton and the things that need them … It’s keep your eyes on both balls.”