Peter Burkill, Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science
Ocean Acidification, Calcareous Plankton and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey
Abstract
Ocean acidification is the newly emerging “elephant in the room” of current global change processes. It is rapidly becoming a fact since the chemistry is straight forward and the trend of declining pH can be seen in time-series data. However, the impact of acidification on ocean biology is more difficult to discern. Laboratory studies suggest some calcareous plankton may be susceptible to lowered pH but field evidence remains very rare. Recently a study of calcareous plankton over the last 5 decades within CPR Survey records has been completed. The talk will outline our findings.
