Thanks to a new study, scientists have learned more about the complex processes that occur in the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. There are underwater ecosystems that play an important role in regulating the climate of our planet and in the accumulation of carbon at depth. Now scientists have found that a unique group of microscopic algae plays a key, but not the main role in the natural storage of carbon in the ocean.. The study was published in the journal Nature, writes Earth.

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Microscopic algae known as diatoms play an important role in moving carbon into the deep oceans, especially in the Southern Ocean, which contains about a third of the organic carbon stored in Earth's oceans.

Diatoms bear distinct dense silicon-based structures that resemble small glass houses. Scientists have long believed that these structures provide enough weight, or ballast, for diatoms to sink to greater depths and carry with them the carbon that would accumulate there.. Such algae are known to absorb billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year..

Diatoms sequester carbon near the ocean surface. This process is part of what is known as the biological carbon pump, a series of processes that push carbon into the deeper ocean..

Diatoms can't survive long descents, new study finds. Instead, they linger closer to the surface while carbon moves to the deep ocean through other, as-yet-unknown means.. Diatoms are not always as big a contributor to the Southern Ocean's carbon pump as previously thought, scientists say..

Scientists are increasingly concerned that ocean warming could affect the productivity of diatoms and thus reduce the efficiency of the biological carbon pump in the Southern Ocean. But new research suggests these changes may not have as much of an impact on the Southern Ocean's ability to store carbon as previously thought..

Scientists say carbon continues to sink into the ocean's depths, suggesting as yet undiscovered processes are occurring in the ocean's so-called " Unraveling these processes is critical to accurately predicting how the oceans will be able to store carbon in the future..

The " The study shows that most of the carbon that is transported to the deep ocean originates in the "

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Although scientists have debunked theories about the supposed purpose of the Stonehenge-like structure, they can't say what it was actually built for..

Focus also wrote that thermonuclear fusion will provide unlimited clean energy, but there are obstacles to obtaining it. Even when scientists can consistently produce more energy from fusion than they use to drive it, they will still need to overcome significant challenges to produce fusion energy at scale.