A study has uncovered that climate change is the catalyst of a major shift at the base of the marine food web in UK waters.
Researchers at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) discovered that climatic warming is driving reduced nutrient availability affecting the food available to zooplankton and that the “winners” in this scenario were the species who could efficiently feed and survive on very small particles.
As zooplankton are part of the foundation of the marine food chain, the researchers say any shift negative affect on them could have far-reaching consequences, affecting fish populations, size and productivity.
Zooplankton, sometimes described as the ‘cows of the sea’, eat plant-like plankton and are a key link in the food chain, converting the carbon fixed by photosynthesis into essential food for consumers higher in the food chain, such as fish.
The organisms are so numerous in the ocean, that they constitute 40% of total marine animal biomass. For decades, scientists have observed widespread declines in some key zooplankton groups across parts of the North-East Atlantic.
Professor Pennie Lindeque, co-author, said: “The fact that it now appears to be losing out as the plankton community reorganises should be a wake-up call. What we are witnessing is not simply a change in species composition, but the restructuring of the marine food web in response to climate change.”
The study concluded that climate change is responsible for altering the physical and chemical conditions of the ocean, including nutrient availability and seasonal stratification (ocean layers becoming less likely to mix due to warming).
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