Storms Spur Growth of Plankton in Ocean
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Like a desert bursting into flower after a rare rainstorm, seemingly barren stretches of the ocean bloom with plankton after hurricanes pass by. The bursts of life were measured by satellite studies following 13 hurricanes from 1998 to 2001.
"I was pleasantly surprised," said Steven Babin of Johns Hopkins University, who led the research.
Babin said sudden blooms of phytoplankton - tiny plants that float in the ocean - have been reported in areas of ocean upwelling where rising water brings nutrients to the surface. He said similar effects from hurricanes had not been widely studied.
"Some parts of the ocean are like deserts, because there isn't enough food for many plants to grow. A hurricane's high winds stir up the ocean waters and help bring nutrients and phytoplankton to the surface, where they get more sunlight, allowing the plants to bloom," he said.
Russell L. Cuhel of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, said similar effects have been found after storms cross the Great Lakes.
A plankton bloom following one severe Lake Michigan storm lasted a "couple of weeks" and led to a big improvement in the growth of larval perch, which fed on the algae, said Cuhel, who was not part of Babin's research team.
"It doesn't surprise me one whit," Cuhel said of the hurricane report, noting there are two big inputs to the growth of plankton, rain and rising nutrients stirred by the wind.
He said one hurricane he studied showed mixed water more than 175 yards deep after a storm.
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