Instructions
Read the following passage and answer the questions given after it.
The ocean will not look the same color in the future. Essentially, climate change will make the blues of the ocean bluer and the greens
greener. Scientists from MIT, Boston, figured this out by creating a global model that simulates the growth of a tiny creature that lives in
the oceans and affects the color we see. Their research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
The ocean looks blue or green to us because of a combination of how sunlight interacts with water molecules and with whatever else
lives in that water.
The molecules in water absorb all but the blue part of the spectrum of sunlight, and the water reflects that blue color back. That's the
color we see.
The water looks greener when it has more phytoplankton, tiny, microscopic organisms that, like plants, can use chlorophyll to capture
mostly the blue portions of the spectrum of sunlight. They then use photosynthesis to create the chemical energy they need to live.
When there are more of these creatures in the water absorbing sunlight, they make the water look greener. Conversely, if there are fewer
phytoplankton, the water looks bluer.
The creatures' growth is dependent on how much sunlight, carbon dioxide and nutrients are around. Climate change is altering the
ocean currents, meaning there will be fewer nutrients for phytoplankton to feed on in some areas, so there will be a decline in their
number in those regions.
Since the 19908, satellites have taken regular measurements of how much chlorophyll is in the ocean. Those levels can change because
of weather events or because of climate change.
The study predicts that the blues will intensify, most likely in subtropical regions where phytoplankton will decrease. These are areas
near the equator like Bermuda and the Bahamas that are already quite low in phytoplankton.
Regions where there are a lot of nutrients, like in the Southern Ocean or parts of the North Atlantic, will see even faster-growing
phytoplankton because those waters are warming with climate change. Those waters will look greener.
Climate change will bring a color change to half of the world's oceans by the end of the let century, the study says. That's bad on several
levels: For one, phytoplankton remove about as much carbon dioxide from the air as plants and help regulate our climate, research
shows.
They are also key to other animals' survival" Phytoplankton are at the base, and if the base changes, it endangers everything else along
the food web, going far enough to the polar bears or tuna or just about anything that you want to eat or love to see in pictures, "said
Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a principal research scientist in MIT.