A new study revealed that sea spray aerosol particles are able to significantly impact the world's climate due to their ability to scatter radiation from the sun. Clouds are then formed as the particles are sprayed forth, which are the seeds for all kinds of weather conditions all over Earth.
The study researches the effects of microbial control on sea spray aerosol, along with the blooms included within, in an isolated facility that simulates the atmosphere of the ocean with 3,400 gallons of seawater. The seawater contains phytoplankton, which is the foundation of the food chain in the ocean and the catalyst that begins the process of how sea spray aerosol particles can change global climate.
Kimberly Prather and colleagues at the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE) note that as the phytoplankton are broken down by bacteria then mixed with the sea salt, different molecules are released into the seawater. The molecules, which are then later aerosolized and turned into sea spray droplets upon the breaking of waves, include proteins and building blocks such as lipids and sugars.
Through tests in the isolated ocean atmosphere facility, results revealed that differences in the dynamics among several kinds of microbes are affecting the concentrations of species that are less soluble in water, including lipids found in seawater.
In turn, bubbles that burst from the waves in the ocean propel the molecules up into the Earth's atmosphere.
According to Prather, the studies have given researchers a newfound understanding of the significance of the complicated relationships between the microbes that can be found in seawater and their impact in the composition and the ability to form clouds of sea spray aerosol. This would in turn allow experts to developer better climate models to help analyze and understand the ocean and the atmosphere, which could lead to more accurate predictions on the effects of the global climate change.
It was previously thought that it was just concentrations of chlorophyll-a that governed the ocean's biological processes and its connection with the chemical composition of sea spray aerosol. However, the study confirmed that microbial degradation also has an impact on the phenomenon.
Photo: Graham Cook | Flickr
