With the aid of satellites and spacecraft, scientist are receiving information about climate change that allows us to model the transformations occurring on our planet. This data will improve our understanding of global dynamics and the processes occurring on the surface of the earth, in the oceans, and in the lower atmosphere.
Phytoplankton are small, microscopic single-celled plants.
They exist near the ocean surface using chlorophyll to convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into organic matter for their cellular structure. The production of oxygen in our atmosphere comes from many sources. One of the most valuable, for the ocean and the atmosphere, is from phytoplankton. Using sunlight these organisms convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. River and lake run off feeds these nutrients into the oceans at the coast, where concentration is seen to be the highest.