page_title: Emiliania huxleyi
hierarchical_section_title: Emiliania huxleyi
caption_attribution_description: English: Emiliania huxleyi is about one-tenth the size of a human hair. But in high enough concentrations —a “bloom”—this single-celled phytoplankton becomes visible from space. In May 2020, a vivid bloom of E. huxleyi colored the surface waters of a fjord in southern Norway. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of Hardangerfjord on May 30, 2020. Blooms can persist for several weeks, but cloud-free views of the entire fjord—Norway’s second-longest—can be hard to come by. Natural-color satellite images show a hint of color on May 25, and by June 10 vivid color was still visible between the clouds. E. huxleyi is the most abundant species of coccolithophore, a type of phytoplankton that builds itself a shell of calcium carbonate disks, or “coccoliths.” The shells are so reflective that they can make otherwise dark blue water appear milky blue-green. The photo below, by Irene Huse of Norway’s Institute of Marine Research, shows the ship-based view of water in Hardangerfjord that was turned turquoise by E. huxleyi. [see link] Spring and early summer are common times to see phytoplankton blooms in the North and Norwegian seas. In May and June 2019, a stunning bloom, likely composed primarily of E. huxleyi, showed up along the Norwegian coast and filled Sognefjord—the country’s longest and deepest fjord. Coccolithophores tend to be good competitors for nutrients, so they can grow well even under low-nutrient conditions that limit other phytoplankton. But other phytoplankton turn up in this region as well, and not all are as harmless as E. huxleyi. In 2019, a bloom of Chrysochromulina leadbeateri in the waters off northern Norway suffocated millions of farmed salmon. NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
context_page_description: Emiliania huxleyi is a species of coccolithophore found in almost all ocean ecosystems from the equator to sub-polar regions, and from nutrient rich upwelling zones to nutrient poor oligotrophic waters. It is one of thousands of different photosynthetic plankton that freely drift in the euphotic zone of the ocean, forming the basis of virtually all marine food webs. It is studied for the extensive blooms it forms in nutrient-depleted waters after the reformation of the summer thermocline. Like other coccolithophores, E. huxleyi is a single-celled phytoplankton covered with uniquely ornamented calcite disks called coccoliths. Individual coccoliths are abundant in marine sediments although complete coccospheres are more unusual. In the case of E. huxleyi, not only the shell, but also the soft part of the organism may be recorded in sediments. It produces a group of chemical compounds that are very resistant to decomposition. These chemical compounds, known as alkenones, can be found in marine sediments long after other soft parts of the organisms have decomposed. Alkenones are most commonly used by earth scientists as a means to estimate past sea surface temperatures.
context_section_description: Emiliania huxleyi is a species of coccolithophore found in almost all ocean ecosystems from the equator to sub-polar regions, and from nutrient rich upwelling zones to nutrient poor oligotrophic waters. It is one of thousands of different photosynthetic plankton that freely drift in the euphotic zone of the ocean, forming the basis of virtually all marine food webs. It is studied for the extensive blooms it forms in nutrient-depleted waters after the reformation of the summer thermocline. Like other coccolithophores, E. huxleyi is a single-celled phytoplankton covered with uniquely ornamented calcite disks called coccoliths. Individual coccoliths are abundant in marine sediments although complete coccospheres are more unusual. In the case of E. huxleyi, not only the shell, but also the soft part of the organism may be recorded in sediments. It produces a group of chemical compounds that are very resistant to decomposition. These chemical compounds, known as alkenones, can be found in marine sediments long after other soft parts of the organisms have decomposed. Alkenones are most commonly used by earth scientists as a means to estimate past sea surface temperatures.
caption: Bloom of E. huxleyi in Hardangerfjord, NorwayMay 2020
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