Shetland bloom

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features a vivid, turquoise algal boom east of Scotland’s Shetland Islands. It is assumed that this is a coccolithophore bloom – a type of microscopic marine algae living in the upper layer of the sea. Like all phytoplankton, coccolithophores contain chlorophyll and have the tendency to multiply rapidly near the surface. In large numbers, coccolithophores periodically shed their tiny scales called ‘coccoliths’ into the surrounding waters. These calcium-rich coccoliths turn the normally dark water a bright, milky-turquoise colour. Although invisible to the eye at close quarters, in large quantities, they are easy to spot in satellite images. These types of algae play a complex role in the ocean uptake of carbon dioxide in the surface ocean, and they transport the stored carbon into the deep ocean, as the coccoliths sink. As part of ESA’s Science for Society BICEP project, coccolithophores are represented in the particulate inorganic carbon products.

Read full story: Untangling the ocean biological carbon pump