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Plankton will suffer as oceans warm September 8, 2013, by Alex Kirby One effect of the warming of the oceans will be to depress the growth of plankton, with consequences for fish and other species LONDON, that 8 depend on September it. – Researchers at two UK universities have found that rising temperatures in the world’s oceans will affect the development of the plankton on which most marine life feeds. The research team, from the universities of East Anglia and Exeter, has demonstrated that the increasing warmth caused by a changing climate will upset the natural cycles of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorous. This will affect the plankton, making it scarcer and so causing problems for fish and other species higher up the food chain. There are also likely to be implications for climate change, but just what they will be, the team leader says, is far from clear. Plankton play an important role in the oceanic carbon cycle by removing half of all CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis – the process during which plants and other organisms convert light, usually from the Sun, into energy. The carbon then falls deep into the ocean and ends up on the sea bed, where it remains safely isolated from the atmosphere for centuries. But the novel point about the team’s work, published in Nature Climate Change, is their discovery that water temperature has a direct impact on maintaining the plankton’s delicate ecosystem. This means the effects of oceanic warming will affect plankton and drive “a vicious cycle of climate change”. Researchers from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences and the School of Computing Sciences investigated phytoplankton – microscopic plant-like organisms which rely on photosynthesis to reproduce and grow. The lead researcher, Dr Thomas Mock, says: “Phytoplankton, including micro-algae, is responsible for half of the carbon dioxide that is naturally removed from the atmosphere. “As well as being vital to climate control, it also creates enough oxygen for every other breath we take, and forms the base of the food chain for fisheries, so it is incredibly important for food security. “Previous studies have shown that phytoplankton communities respond to global warming by changes in diversity and productivity. But with our study we show that warmer temperatures directly impact the chemical cycles in plankton, which has not been shown before. 1. What important role do plankton play in cycling carbon? Explain. 2. What kind of plankton would be responsible for cycling carbon?