SAMS news room

Researchers from the SAMS have co-authored a new report highlighting the impact of climate change on marine plankton and habitats in UK waters.

Published by the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP), the report discusses the latest evidence showing major large-scale shifts already happening in plankton communities.

It also demonstrates how these effects are being amplified by human activities, including commercial fishing and the development of offshore energy infrastructure, as well as run-off from agriculture and other land-based industries.

The report’s authors also say there are marked differences across areas of the coastal and marine environment, with poor monitoring in some areas leading to a lack of consensus in some of the observed trends and predictions. But overall, they expect to see the effects observed currently to impact the entire marine ecosystem, which will likely affect food web efficiency and productivity into the future.

The new report was authored by a team including Prof. Paul Tett and Dr Callum Whyte, as well as scientists at the University of Plymouth, the Marine Biological Association, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Environment Agency, Cefas and the Scottish Government.

Dr Whyte said: This report is a vital health check for the waters surrounding the UK. Warming waters due to climate change are fundamentally changing the abundance and distribution of the plankton – the tiny animals and plants that everything in the sea depends on.

“It is making marine food webs less efficient and putting an ever-increasing strain on the health of our fisheries and the ocean’s ability to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere.

“It provides yet more evidence that we need to start making smarter policy decisions to protect our marine environment and the food that we get from it.”

The new MCCIP report builds on a previous assessment, published in. Since then, UK and European researchers have produced a number of studies highlighting the importance of plankton for the entire planet and the ways in which climate change is driving fundamental shifts at the base of the marine food web.

Climate change is already reshaping UK plankton communities, with warmer waters favouring smaller plankton and microbial species, shifting species distributions northwards, advancing spring blooms, and increasing jellyfish in some areas.

These changes are reducing the efficiency of marine food webs and are being intensified by other pressures including eutrophication, reduced water clarity, fishing and offshore development.

Continued warming is expected to drive earlier and longer-lasting plankton blooms, further northward movement of plankton and fish species, lower overall productivity, and greater dominance of small plankton adapted to nutrient-poor conditions.

As a result, marine food webs are likely to become less productive, affecting fish populations and fisheries, while also reducing the ability of UK seas to store carbon and provide other vital ecosystem services.