These buoys passively ride the ocean's waves and swells collecting temperature information about the air and sea, wind direction, salinity changes, and rainfall quantities which enable oceanographers and climatologists to study interconnected atmosphere and ocean dynamics. As important as the El Nino is, especially this year, there are other scientific studies concurrently being conducted on board. This California to Hawaii leg of the semiannual equatorial transit is carrying two of these ancillary projects, both of which are interested in and tied to El Nino conditions. The physical characteristics of seawater determine to a great extent the productivity of the ocean. As many students learn in environmental science or biology studies, a food chain depicts the flow of energy and its degradation through an ecosystem.
Solar energy provides that initial source of energy for terrestrial food chains.
Green plants are the most important link since they have the capacity, through the process of photosynthesis, to harness solar energy by making glucose, a high energy sugar. The same process occurs in marine or aquatic food chains and it is the phytoplankton that performs photosynthesis in the open water. The chemical process of making sugar by plants is aided by chlorophyll, a green pigment, which acts as a catalyst for the reaction. Carbon dioxide from the air, and water, are chemically transformed into glucose, a simple carbohydrate, with the byproduct oxygen also being produced. This is a reversible reaction because when glucose is burned or used by an organism, the energy is released and the byproducts carbon dioxide and water are excreted.