“Walking the Plank-ton“. More awesome marine biology insight from Willis Eschenbach. He waited until he had a chance to read the entire Global phytoplankton decline over the past century paper in Nature because he didn’t want to get it wrong. The paper’s claim is that our marine phytoplankton population has been cut in half since 1900 because of warming of the global oceans.
So what did Willis come up with to reject the paper’s conclusions? This:
The short answer is that I don’t know … but I don’t believe their results.
Wott's Up With That? 
“Walking the Plank-ton” (WUWT, Jul 31, 2010)
DOUBT IS SUFFICIENT……….”The rude truth of phytoplankton is this: phytoplankton growth is not limited by temperature. Instead, it is limited by nutrients.” (W.E.)
For Willis Eschenbach it is sufficient to mention the importance of nutrients, without completing the argument with the necessary extension of how nutrients could be reduced by half in 8 of 10 ocean regions. And without addressing the author’s explanation:
“As the water temperature rises, the ocean becomes more stable which limits the nutrients present in the water. This in turn limits the amount of phytoplankton,” explains Mr. Boyce. (Dalhousi news release)
“What we think is happening is that the oceans are becoming more stratified as the water warms…”
“The plants need sunlight from above and nutrients from below, and as it becomes more stratified, that limits the availibility of nutrients.”
(Daniel Boyce, per BBC)
I am wondering whether WUWT will ever find a peer reviewed paper that can pass their standards.