Based on images of NASA, US researchers have found the full bloom of Noctiluca scintillans, known as "sparkling seaweed," along the Arabian coast.

Noctiluca scintillans, a millimeter-sized plankton with the ability to thrive in coastal waters, forming thick green vortices and filaments. The creature that first appeared 20 years ago has proliferated at an alarming rate around India, Pakistan and other countries.

But Noctiluca occurs every year and lasts for months harming plankton - an important part of the Arabian Sea’s food chain, which threatens the abundance of fish in the waters and fisheries of 150 million people.

According to the researchers, the continuous loss of snow in the Himalayan-Tibbetan Plateu region is driving the expansion of Noctiluca to make the ocean surface warmer.

NASA satellite images show the rise of Noctiluca in the Arbian Sea with melting glaciers and weakening winter monsoons.

"This is probably one of the most dramatic changes we have seen in relation to climate change. We are seeing Noctiluca in Southeast Asia, off the coast of Thailand and Vietnam, and as far as south as the Seychelles, and everywhere it goes becomes a problem, "said Joaquim Goes from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. 

Noctiluca scintillans, a millimeter-sized creature that can perform photosynthesis and hunt other organisms for food.

Noctiluca, first appearing in the late 1990s, threatens the Arabian Sea’s vulnerable food chain. It also harms water quality and causes many fatal fish cases.

Using experiments, field data and NASA satellite imagery, researchers can link the rise of Noctiluca in the Arabian Sea to melting glaciers and weakening winter monsoon winds.

Typically, cold winter winds blowing from the Himalayas cool the ocean’s surface. After cooling, these waters sink and are replaced with nutrient-rich waters from below, supporting phytoplankton - the main producer of the food chain.

The coastal waters are opaque green in Chonas, Thailand in 2017 due to the phenomenon of Noctiluca blooms

A thriving phytoplankton is a nutrient-rich source of the ocean and a food source for fish. However, the melting of glaciers and snow cover in the Himalayas makes the monsoon blowing from the soil warmer - disrupting the process and leading to less surface nutrients.

This is beneficial for Noctiluca, which dislikes sunlight and nutrients that can survive by eating other organisms.

Noctiluca propels itself like a whip pushing it forward and allows it to eat any microscopic plankton from the surrounding water.

Noctiluca also stores thousands of photosynthesis endosymbionts, accumulating a lot of ammonia in the cell to carry nitrogen-rich nutrients - but also makes it not a delicious food for fish.

In Oman, desalination plants, refineries and natural gas plants are forced to scale down by Noctiluca flowers and jellyfish. The pressures leading to marine food supplies and economic security could also fuel an increase in piracy in countries like Yemen and Somalia.

Loss of snow in the Himalayas causes the spread of this destructive algae

The loss of fishery resources is likely to exacerbate socioeconomic chaos for countries in the region already constrained by war and poverty. This study provides new evidence of the effects of global warming on Indian monsoon winds.

"Most of the research related to climate change and ocean biology is focused on polar and temperate waters, and changes in topics will not be noticed much," Goes said.

The research has been published in Science report.