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Nature 444, 695-696 (7 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/444695a; Published online 6 December 2006

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Oceanography: Plankton in a warmer world

Scott C. Doney1

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Satellite data show that phytoplankton biomass and growth generally decline as the oceans' surface waters warm up. Is this trend, seen over the past decade, a harbinger of the future for marine ecosystems?

Oranges in Florida, wildfires in Indonesia, plankton in the North Pacific — what links these seemingly disparate items is that they are all affected by year-to-year fluctuations in global-scale climate. On page 752 of this issue, Behrenfeld et al.1 describe how such fluctuations, especially in temperature, are connected to the productivity of phytoplankton in the world's oceans.

  1. Scott C. Doney is in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA.
    Email: sdoney@whoi.edu

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