Download Long term responses of North Atlantic calcifying

What is the title of the paper? Long term responses of North Atlantic calcifying plankton to climate
change
Who wrote the paper and where is it published? Gregory Beaugrand, Abigail McQuatters – Gollop,
Martin Edwards and Eric Goberville. Nature Climate Change Letters online 2 Dec 2012.
Citation: Beaugrand, G., McQuatters-Gollop, A., Edwards, M. and Goberville, E., 2012. Long-term
changes in North Atlantic calcifying plankton and climate. Nature Climate Change Letters, online.
What is this about? The paper examines whether an increase in atmospheric CO2 alone will have a
detrimental effect marine organisms or whether other environmental effects such as temperature
will play an important role.
Why is it important? Ocean acidification is currently a ‘hot topic’ with a lot of worldwide research
being carried out on its projected effects. There is much debate in the scientific community about
the long term effects an increase in ocean acidification will cause, from loss of habitat (coral reefs )
to individual species (calcifying organisms).
Why does it matter? The long term effects of ocean acidification are not fully understood but could
have the potential to alter marine habitats, species and therefore the marine food chain and
ecosystem. Some organisms may even benefit from an increase in CO2
What does the paper tell us?
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An increase in global CO2 has the potential to threaten marine biodiversity in two ways.
1. CO2 and greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere to cause global warming
2. CO2 will alter the chemistry of the sea water making in more acidic.
Calcifying organisms (organisms that use calcium carbonate to make their shells or body
structures) are potentially at great risk from an increase in ocean acidification
Many previous studies on ocean acidification have been based on laboratory observations
This paper examines abundance and distribution data from the CPR survey for formainfers,
coccolithophores, echinoderms and molluscs (all calcifying organisms)
The conclusions are:
1. Molluscs (planktonic snails) are declining in overall abundance and moving further
north
2. Echinoderm larvae (starfish larvae) have increase in abundance and their
geographical range in the North sea
3. Foramiinfers and coccolithophores increased in abundance and their geographical
range
The results from statistical analyses revealed that
 Changes in foraminifers, coccolithophores and echinoderms was positively
correlated by temperature
 Changes in molluscs was positively correlated to changes in pH
The overall conclusion was that temperature (annual sea surface temperature) has more of
a direct effect on the distribution and abundance of calcifying organisms than pH.