In 2010 a large volcanic eruption disrupted traffic throughout Europe and spewed ash even farther.
Now it seems the great fall of ash has done something else: it has given life to a large bloom of plankton, the lifeblood of the sea.
The ash of Eyjafjallajokull deposited soluble Iron into the northern Atlantic, triggering the bloom. As much as 570,000 square kilometers of ocean received the ash. It just so happened that a team of researchers was conducting studies in the area and were able to witness the phenomenon.
It was only a few years earlier that research in the same area showed that phytoplankton was diminishing due to a scarcity in iron in the waters. Without the metal in its dissolved form, the phytoplankton cannot form.
The effects of the ash were short lived, because the iron was used to remove biological nitrates, which results in limitation of the nitrogen of the plankton population. The less available nitrogen there is, the less the phytoplankton can grow. So the initial surge in plankton, which was about 20% more than previously observed, was later stifled when nitrogen supply diminished.
Phytoplankton is not only important as food for sea life, it also plays a crucial role by absorbing CO2 in the atmosphere. It is particularly important in the north oceans because of the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere. In fact if iron diminishes, so does the ability of the ocean to act as a CO2 sink.
In the end, the volcanic eruption's effect was short lived, if valuable.
Source: BBC 4.10.13
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