Plankton biodiversity of the North Atlantic: changing patterns revealed by the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey.

• Main Authors: Peter Burkill, Chris Reid
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.542.5370; http://www.geosec.org/documents/cop/bi_geobon/observations/200910_changing_plankton_biodiversity_of_the_north_atlantic.pdf

geographically extensive (pan Atlantic and other ocean basins) marine biological survey in the world with a unique dataset of marine biodiversity (500 taxa). It has generated over 1,000 peer reviewed papers on various aspects of biological, environmental and climatic indicators particularly on impacts of global anthropogenic change on marine ecosystems. In the last decade, the survey has demonstrated major changes to the Atlantic plankton communities including the northerly displacement of major communities by ~1,000 km. Regime shifts have been identified with similar patterns of sensitivity to a 10○C isotherm across three consecutive trophic levels. This conservative behaviour in plankton ecosystems offers a method of prediction into the future. The survey has also shown transfer of Pacific phytoplankton in to the Atlantic for the first time in 800,000 years with unknown consequences for the native ecosystem. Understanding global issues requires a global approach and a future cooperative commonwealth of regional plankton biodiversity surveys is proposed that links current surveys and generates new ones.