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A picture of a huge phytoplankton bloom was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. Phytoplankton are microscopic plantlike organisms that drift in the oceans. Blooms occur when plankton encounter a vein of nutrients and go on a feeding (and multiplication) frenzy. As the basis for the ocean food chain, phytoplankton use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into chemical energy. To do so, they use green chlorophyll, just like plants. It's this chlorophyll that paints the sea aquamarine during a phytoplankton bloom. [Source: Discovery News]
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