Possible Ocean Heating Due to Reduced Plankton

Its a good hypotesis, needs to be tested
General User

Repost from October 18, 2015 at 10:24 am

If we consider the amount of solar energy falling on the waters of the warm blob(s). Then consider that a largely reduced amount of "plankton, phyto this, and microbe that" are using this energy to create sugars and other cell building blocks, and waste oxygen.
Where is this 1000 watts per square meter per second going?
Perhaps directly into heating the water!!,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyll_a
Absorption of light by photosynthetic pigments converts photons into chemical energy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
Today, the average rate of energy capture by photosynthesis globally is approximately 130 terawatts
which is about three times the current power consumption of human civilization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight
The "solar constant" includes all types of solar radiation, not just the visible light. Its average value…approximately 1.361 kW/m². {included are black body definition, and information about water-vapor-Interference on black body measurements}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Calvin Tremendous wealth of publications
Peace All

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Hat Tipp to general usr

Stock, here are a few tidbits to add to the nuke_pro post:  "10-20-15, possible ocean heating due to reduced plankton".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_chlorophyll_maximum

may coincide with a maximum in phytoplankton biomass...was found to be located in the thermocline

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to absorb energy from light.

The electron flow produced by the... chlorophyll pigments, used mainly to produce... chemical energy...reduce CO₂ into sugars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_absorption

Water vapor is a greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere, responsible for 70% of the known absorption of incoming sunlight, particularly in the infrared region, and about 60% of the atmospheric absorption of thermal radiation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_water

Some of the light, hitting the surface of ocean, is reflected back directly but most of it penetrates the water surface interacting with its molecules.

  {IMHO you may want to study this article at length! vast loose ends tied up here!}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_thermal_energy_conversion 

uses the temperature difference between cooler deep and warmer shallow or surface seawaters to run a heat engine