5 gigatons of these 1 mm-sized zooplankton called COPEPODS live in all the world’s oceans. This is equivalent to 17 million 747 jets, and if you laid the jets end to end, they would go around the planet 31 times.
The copepods migrate from around 200m below the ocean surface every night to feed on plants (phytoplankton) at the surface. It is the greatest mass migration of animals on the planet, and it happens twice a day. The vertical motion of the copepods moves just about as much water as the moon and the tides.
The copepods eat 30 times more carbon than humanity generates from burning fossil fuels, and about 6%, or 3 gigatons, of their dead bodies and poop end up in the world’s largest carbon bank, the Abyss. The Abyss contains a 500 m to 1000 m thick layer of organic carbon / mineral sludge https://lnkd.in/evWBxYNh with an area greater than dry land on the planet. https://lnkd.in/ezqwate4
Yet humanity has wiped out more than 50% of marine plankton productivity over the last 70 years due to chemical and particle pollution. We have also wiped out 50% to 80% of Arctic krill, which are just as important. https://lnkd.in/e9fn5TCr, and we are now even contemplating dredging the ocean floor!
We would not have had climate change if we had not poisoned and destroyed most of the world’s oceans.
By 2045, the destruction will be complete unless we act now to stop the inevitable annihilation of nature and life on Earth. Let’s put things into perspective: in comparison to protecting nature, carbon mitigation, windmills and electric cars are almost a joke.
Copepods churn the oceans: https://lnkd.in/eqHn5cRd
Bioclimatic climate change: https://lnkd.in/ev6_2cXN
www.seahorsepoint.org
