OK, I don’t know much about flowers, but lively oceans aren’t typically blue, they’re green-ish.

Primary producers (in normal marine environments) need to photosynthesize, which involves a healthy dollop of chlorophyll.  Trivial fun fact suitable for printing on the side of a tube of Gogurt this is not.  “The fact that [the oceans] are not blue has a [direct] impact on the distribution of tropical cyclones,” says Anand Gnanadesikan, PI for a new NOAA study slated for release sometime in the near future in the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters.

Here’s a quote from the unassailable interwebs on the upcoming study, “Without chlorophyll, sunlight penetrates deeper into the ocean, leaving the surface water cooler.

Cold water in turn causes changes in air circulation patterns, forcing strong winds aloft, “which tend to prevent thunderstorms from developing the necessary superstructure that allows them to grow into hurricanes,” the researchers said.

Phytoplankton populations around the world have been declining over the last century, the reseachers said, citing recently published research.”

I’ll report back after we get details and actual data.  I’ve always been a proponent of the power of tiny marine invertebrates to change the course of history.