Editing Chlorophyll (section)

==Distribution==
Chlorophyll maps from 2002 to 2024, provided by [[NASA]], show milligrams of chlorophyll per cubic meter of seawater each month.<ref name=GlobalMap>{{cite web |url=https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MY1DMM_CHLORA |title = Chlorophyll : Global Maps |website = Earthobservatory.nasa.gov |access-date = 5 November 2024 }}</ref> Places where chlorophyll amounts are very low, indicating very low numbers of [[phytoplankton]], are blue. Places where chlorophyll concentrations are high, meaning many phytoplankton were growing, are yellow. The observations come from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Land is dark gray, and places where MODIS could not collect data because of sea ice, polar darkness, or clouds are light gray. The highest chlorophyll concentrations, where tiny surface-dwelling ocean plants are, are in cold polar waters or in places where ocean currents bring cold water to the surface, such as around the equator and along the shores of continents. It is not the cold water itself that stimulates the phytoplankton. Instead, the cool temperatures are often a sign that the water has welled up to the surface from deeper in the ocean, carrying nutrients that have built up over time. In polar waters, nutrients accumulate in surface waters during the dark winter months when plants cannot grow. When sunlight returns in the spring and summer, the plants flourish in high concentrations.<ref name=GlobalMap/>