Wildlife
Tiny coccolithophores have had a big impact on the planet over time. Though they are single-celled, these photosynthesising organisms are enclosed in a mosaic, or cage, of microscopic plates that make many very beautiful to look at. The plates are made of calcium carbonate, which the coccoliths pull from the surrounding water. As these small organisms live and die in their trillions, they bequeath their tiny plates to the ocean floor where they form rocks such as chalk. Over geological time, coccoliths have removed significant amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to keep Earth cool as the sun grew hotter.
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Chalk dust
Powerful microscopes reveal England's white cliffs to be made up of billions of tiny fossils.
Powerful microscopes reveal England's white cliffs to be made up of billions of tiny fossils.
The following habitats are found across the Coccolithophores distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Coccolithophores (also called coccolithophorids) are unicellular, eukaryotic phytoplankton (algae) belonging to the kingdom Protista or Chromista (according to the older Whittaker and newer Cavalier-Smith Biological Classification systems, respectively) phylum Haptophyta, class Coccolithophyceau, and the botanical division of haptophytes. They are distinguished by special calcium carbonate plates (or scales) of uncertain function called coccoliths ,which are also important microfossils. Coccolithophores are almost exclusively marine and are found in large numbers throughout the euphotic zone of the ocean.
The most abundant species of coccolithophore, Emiliana huxleyi, belongs to the order Isochrysidales and family Noëlaerhabdaceae. It is globally distributed in three of the five major latitudinal zones (Temperate, Subtropical, and Tropical, but not found in the Subarctic or Subantarctic zones), This makes E.huxleyi an important part of the planktonic base of a large proportion of marine food webs. It is also the fastest growing coccolithophore in laboratory cultures. It is studied for the extensive blooms it forms in nutrient depleted waters after the reformation of the summer thermocline and for its production of a group resistant alkenones commonly used by earth scientists as a means to estimate past sea surface temperatures. Coccolithophores are of particular interest to those studying global climate change because as ocean acidity increases, their coccoliths may become even more important as a carbon sink. Furthermore, management strategies are being employed to prevent eutrophication-related coccolithophore blooms, as these blooms lead to a decrease in nutrient flow to lower levels of the ocean.
Coccolithus pelagicus.
The milky blue colour of this phytoplankton bloom strongly suggests that it contains coccolithophores.
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