By Eleni Poulios
A small organism which most people either don’t know at all or only know as aquarium food has been helping to fight global warming, according to new research.
The creatures, known as zooplankton, eat as much as they can, grow fat, and then sink hundreds of metres into the deep ocean in Antarctica.
There they burn the fat which essentially shuts away carbon.
Researchers say that the animal species is solely responsible for locking away as much annual emissions as approximately 55 million petrol cars would cause, thus protecting our atmosphere from warming even further.
Scientists were already aware of this phenomenon and have been researching the creature’s yearly migration in Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean and how it affects climate change.
The lead author from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr Guang Yang, stated that these findings are “remarkable” and added that they force people to rethink how much carbon is being stored in the Southern Ocean.
His co-author, Dr Jennifer Freer from the British Antarctic Survey, said: “The animals are an unsung hero because they have such a cool way of life.”
However, compared to more well-known Antarctic animals such as penguins, zooplankton does not get the attention it deserves.
Odd but fascinating life cycle
The copepod is a type of zooplankton that is distantly related to crabs and lobsters.
Their size varies from 1-10 millimetres and they spend most of their lives asleep somewhere between 500 metres and two kilometres deep in the ocean.
Professor Daniel Mayor, who was able to photograph this creature in Antarctica, explains that under the microscope one can see that there are long sausages of fat inside their bodies as well as fat bubbles in their heads.
So, without them, the Earth’s atmosphere would be significantly warmer.
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Oceans act as carbon storage
Globally, the oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat humanity has created through the burning of fossil fuels – 40% of that being in the Southern Ocean – and a lot of this is thanks to zooplankton.
To find out how exactly these tiny animals store carbon, millions of pounds are being spent globally on researching them.
Even though scientists already knew that zooplankton contributed to storing carbon, it was not entirely clear what the effects of the zooplankton’s migration to the Southern Ocean were.
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How the carbon storage works
The most recent research focuses on copepods and other types of zooplankton.
These animals consume phytoplankton, which grow on the ocean surface through the transformation of carbon dioxide into living matter using photosynthesis, and that turns into fat in their bodies.
“Their fat is like a battery pack,” explains Prof. Daniel Mayor at the University of Exeter, who was not part of this study.
“When they spend the winter deep in the ocean, they just sit and slowly burn off this fat or carbon. This releases carbon dioxide.
“Because of the way the oceans work, if you put carbon really deep down, it takes decades or even centuries for that CO2 to come out and contribute to atmospheric warming.”
According to the calculations of the research team, this process, known as the seasonal vertical migration pump, transports around 65m tonnes of carbon to at least 500m below the ocean surface every year.
The research found that copepods contribute the most to this process, followed by krill and salps.
According to a greenhouse-gas emissions calculator used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this is roughly equivalent to the emissions caused by driving 55m diesel cars for a year.
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Zooplankton is under increasing threat
Dr Free and Prof. Mayor spent time on a polar research ship with Sir David Attenborough earlier this year to study zooplankton.
They concluded that warming waters and commercial harvesting of krill could threaten zooplankton in the future.
“Climate change, disturbance to ocean layers, and extreme weather are all threats,” explains co-author Prof. Angus Atkinson from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
This could potentially reduce the number of zooplankton in Antarctica and then, as a result, limit the carbon stored in the deep ocean.
Fishing for krill, meanwhile, is allowed under international law but is harshly criticised by environmentalists.
It is believed by scientists that their recent findings should be incorporated into climate models showing what would happen without the major impact of zooplankton.
“If this biological pump didn’t exist, atmospheric CO2 levels would be roughly twice those as they are at the moment,” Prof. Atkinson adds.
“So, the oceans are doing a pretty good job of mopping up CO2 and getting rid of it.”
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