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Sunday #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠

Coccolithophores (phylum Haptista) are a type of #phytoplankton covered in white calcium carbonate coccolith plates. Blooms in the surface seas can be seen in satellite images because these shells. They are the primary component in #chalk deposits such as the white cliffs of Dover (the "calcite belt" in the temperate north) and as such are very important for the biological carbon pump.
#climate
Emiliania huxleyi (below) is a common species.
https://joidesresolution.org/the-magical-world-of-coccolithophores/

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