Ocean-dwelling 'Gummy Bears' transport carbon, help atmosphere

[Poll_Blind]

From DiscoveryChannel.com:

Little barrel-shaped sea creatures, each resembling a line of transparent Gummy Bears, may be a key tool in fighting the greenhouse effect and global warming, researchers say.

In a recent study, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts observed these creatures, called salps.

The creatures emerge by the billions in groups and occupy as much as 100,000 square kilometres of the ocean floor, according to the scientists.

Salps feed on phytoplankton, a sea plant that absorbs carbon made by fossil fuels we burn.

When the salps defecate, it releases the carbon back into the ocean, the scientists say.

--snip--

PB

[mia]

1. Thanks for some good news.

Your post sent me on a web exploration.

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=13954§ionid=1021

[bbinacan]

2. Nature can be

one resilient cuss.

[jean]

3. Long live the salps, and long may they poop!

[mainegreen]

4. Won't help if the ocean become to acidic.

Just sayin.

[drm604]

5. Sounds good but

they don't seem to be maintaining the balance. Things are getting hotter, glaciers are melting, etc.
Maybe we can find a way to encourage their growth.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. what flavor are they?

:hide:

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Slime, kelp, whale and jellyfish! n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Gummy bears? I dunno.

This one is "host" to a (dwarf) male argonautid. The host species of salp here is Tethys vagina.



This is a circle of cyclosalpa.