Four Atlantic storms shifted tiny plankton along two paths.
Hurricane plankton shifts — Atlantic Ocean
Using NASA’s PACE satellite, a study published October 16, 2026, tracked how four Atlantic hurricanes altered the ocean’s tiniest drifters. Where storms mixed the surface strongly, chlorophyll rose at once, led by fast gains in Synechococcus. In the weakly mixed case—Hurricane Melissa (Oct 2025)—the response lagged by 4–5 days, with multi‑day increases in Synechococcus and picoeukaryotes, and no significant change in Prochlorococcus.
Why it’s interestingFig. 030 For four Atlantic storms, two post‑storm pathways are shown: an immediate near‑track surge under strong mixing and a delayed bloom days later in the weak‑mixing case.
