With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedi
"With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico.
The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed and found that the storms churn the ocean so powerfully and deeply—up to thousands of meters—that nutrient-rich, cold water is brought to the surface.
The resulting phytoplankton blooms—visible in satellite imagery taken from space—are a feast for bacteria, zooplankton, small fish, and filter-feeding animals such as shellfish and baleen whales.
"When we got there, you could actually see and smell the difference in the ocean," said Professor Michael Beman. "It was green from all the chlorophyll being produced. There were totally different organisms there, and they were going nuts in the wake of the storm."
But all that mixing also stirs up low-oxygen zones deep in the water, bringing them much nearer the surface than usual, threatening organisms that need higher oxygen concentrations to survive."
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