CYCLE OF LIFE (Reporter Package)

This is what we know: the Earth is a water planet, with more than 70 percent of its surface covered by it. Carbon is the stuff of life, the fundamental chemical that builds tree trunks and bird wings and human hearts. Water and carbon dance to a seasonal rhythm, pulsing to a beat of growth and death, propelled by forces tied to a tilted planet flying around the sun.

After that, it gets complicated.

Here's what we don't know: by what means does carbon move through the biosphere—where does it go, how does it get there, and what keeps the cycle moving? What's the future of life on Earth in a post-industrial age?

Welcome to the beginning of the answer. After three years of constant data collection, NASA's SeaWiFS program is announcing a major step in understanding the Earth's carbon cycle.

SOT -- Dr. Gene Feldman, SeaWiFS Project Manager

The waters of the ocean contain more than 50 times as much carbon as the atmosphere and land combined. Considering that almost every living thing is made of carbon, a detailed study of how it moves and interacts is vital. With SeaWiFS, NASA literally mapped the direct result of carbon uptake in the natural world, namely growth in plant life. It turns out that the world's star botanical performer is little larger than a single bacteria--vast, drifting fields of the stuff--called phytoplankton.

SOT – Dr. Michael Behrenfeld, NASA Oceanographer

By watching changes in phytoplankton growth around the world, Behrenfeld and his colleagues actually monitored the carbon cycle.

Experts say this research has profound implications for long term monitoring of planetary health, from broad biosphere issues to climate change. It's a baseline, they say, against which future measurements will be compared.

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Michael Starobin 301-286-4509
Wade Sisler 301-286-6256