Carbon Dioxide, Diatoms and Global Warming

Global warming is a controversial topic concerning how increasing levels of carbon dioxide is changing the climate on earth at an alarming rate.  Environmental scientists point to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases as the cause of the phenomenon.  These gases--carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and the chlorofluorocarbons--are called greenhouse gases because of their ability to trap infrared radiation.  This trapped radiation leads to increased global warming.

A predominant gas of the global carbon cycle is carbon dioxide.  It's role in climate change is inexorably linked with photosynthesis.  The fixation of carbon dioxide by algae during photosynthesis accounts for a large amount of the earth's primary production.  Diatoms are common  fresh water and marine organisms that are important photosynthesizers and a main primary producer in the global ecosystem.  The interrelationship of the global carbon cycle and the Diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii is in the forefront of current environmental research.