Jeremy Plester: How the humble salp is helping to fight the climate crisis

By Dilip -

Salps are jelly-like sea creatures, so humble that few people even know they exist. But there are countless numbers of them swimming in the world’s oceans and they help fight climate change. Salps cruise around the sea surface at night, sucking up and digesting phytoplankton, microscopic plant-like organisms that absorb CO2 for their photosynthesis. During the day, the salps sink deeper in the sea, possibly to avoid predators, and squirt out unusually heavy droppings rich in carbon left over from their phytoplankton meals.

The pellets sink rapidly, up to 1,000 metres deep in a day, and faster than the pellets of most other sea creatures. And when the salp dies, its body also sinks rapidly, sending even more carbon to the ocean depths. According to a study published last year, salps, jellyfish and other gelatinous creatures such as comb jellies remove up to an estimated 6.8bn tonnes of carbon each year from seas around the world. Of that, some 2bn tonnes of the carbon is thought to fall to the seafloor where it stays locked up and out of harm’s way. Salps remain largely unappreciated, but they are powerhouses in curbing climate change….

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/17/weatherwatch-how-the-humble-salp-is-helping-to-fight-the-climate-crisis

More posts on the oceans

Earthly Anecdotes: an alternative to the doom-saying of our times

Reynard Loki - Here’s a major lesson from the pandemic: We can save the planet from climate change

This obscure energy treaty is the greatest threat to the planet you’ve never heard of

Erin Brockovich - Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity

"DoD: At Least 126 Bases Report Water Contaminants Linked to Cancer, Birth Defects"

John Sentamu - It’s time to act against the oil companies causing death and destruction

Restoring forests could capture two-thirds of the carbon humans have added to the atmosphere

Book review: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History // Conservative groups spend up to $1bn a year to fight action on climate change

From Siberia to Australia: the age of fire is the bleakest warning yet        

The Amazon is burning. The climate is changing. And we're doing nothing to stop it

MONEY TO BURN: Over 300 banks and investors back 6 of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn

Matt Sheehan - Silent documentary on China's unspooling environmental disasters


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