Maine study finds potentially disastrous threat to single-celled plants that support all life

By Christopher Cousins, BDN Staff

Posted June 10, 2012, at 5:02 p.m.
Last modified June 11, 2012, at 6:18 a.m. 

BOOTHBAY, Maine — Phytoplankton. If the mention of the tiny plant organisms that permeate the world’s oceans isn’t enough to pique your interest, consider this: They produce the oxygen in every other breath you take.

Still not interested? This is where it’s hard not to take notice. In 2007, the reproduction rate of phytoplankton in the Gulf of Maine decreased suddenly by a factor of five — what used to take a day now takes five — and according to a recently released study by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay, it hasn’t bounced back.