Climate change impact on the plankton community in the Northeast Atlantic

It is now widely accepted that global warming is occurring, yet its effects on the world's largest ecosystem, the marine pelagic realm, are largely unknown. We show that sea surface warming in the Northeast Atlantic is accompanied by increasing phytoplankton abundance in cooler regions and decr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Richardson, Anthony, Schoeman, Dave
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2004
Subjects:
MARINE-PHYTOPLANKTON
RECRUITMENT
FISHERIES
SEA
BIODIVERSITY
OSCILLATION
PATTERNS
Multidisciplinary Sciences
TEMPERATURES
COD
ZOOPLANKTON
Northeast Atlantic
Online Access:https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/f44604ab-cece-4881-a44e-df75d5345aa1
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1100958
Description
Summary:It is now widely accepted that global warming is occurring, yet its effects on the world's largest ecosystem, the marine pelagic realm, are largely unknown. We show that sea surface warming in the Northeast Atlantic is accompanied by increasing phytoplankton abundance in cooler regions and decreasing phytoplankton abundance in warmer regions. This impact propagates up the food web (bottom-up control) through copepod herbivores to zooplankton carnivores because of tight trophic coupling. Future warming is therefore likely to alter the spatial distribution of primary and secondary pelagic production, affecting ecosystem services and placing additional stress on already-depleted fish and mammal populations.

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