At the same time, acidification will hurt species with calcium carbonate shells, including the plankton which form the entire basis
for marine food webs.
Researchers find trouble among phytoplankton, the base of the food chain, which has implications
for the marine food web and the world's carbon cycle
Not exact matches
The polar bear is a semi-aquatic
marine mammal that depends mainly upon the pack ice and the
marine food web for survival.
The researchers looked specifically at the average fishing revenue in 106 Alaskan communities
for 10 years before and after 1989, a year when the North Pacific Ocean experienced a significant shift in productivity and abrupt changes in the composition of
marine food webs, while at the same time the global price
for salmon dropped because of competition from farm - raised fish.
The researchers warn that removing
marine animals at the top of the
food web could significantly disrupt the ocean's overall ecology
for potentially millions of years, which is why effective management strategies will be critical.
«This paper is significant because it identifies a link between ocean conditions and the magnitude of the toxic bloom in 2015 that resulted in the highest levels of domoic acid contamination in the
food web ever recorded
for many species,» said co-author Kathi Lefebvre, a
marine biologist at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
The selective extinction of large - bodied animals could have serious consequences
for the health of
marine ecosystems, the scientists say, because they tend to be at the tops of
food webs and their movements through the water column and the seafloor help cycle nutrients through the oceans.
Unicellular photosynthetic microbes — phytoplankton — are responsible
for virtually all oceanic primary production, which fuels
marine food webs and plays a fundamental role in the global carbon cycle.
«We documented
for first time marked changes in the pelagic
food web length in response to various natural and anthropogenic related stressors,» said lead author Rocio I. Ruiz - Cooley, formerly of NOAA Fisheries» Southwest Fisheries Science Center and now at Moss Landing
Marine Laboratories.
Between 2009 and 2017, the German research network BIOACID (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) investigated how different
marine species respond to ocean acidification, how these reactions impact the
food web as well as material cycles and energy turnover in the ocean, and what consequences these changes have
for economy and society.
The name is an acronym
for «Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification «within which 14 institutes explore how
marine organisms react to ocean acidification and the impact on the
food web, the ecosystems in the sea and ultimately also on the economy and society.
«This loss of top predators could hold serious implications
for the entire
marine ecosystem, greatly affecting
food webs throughout this region,» said the lead author of the study, Francesco Ferretti, a doctoral student in
marine biology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
«What is important about this study is that while yes, whales eat fish (including baleen whales), whales enhance the production of fish by providing through excretion the nutrients essential
for phytoplankton growth at the base of the
food web,» said Jim Ruzicka from the Hatfield
Marine Science Center at the University of Oregon.
As an essential part of the
marine ecosystem, they keep
food webs in balance, keep prey populations healthy, and keep sea grass beds and other vital habitats healthy,
for starters.
Such debris doesn't really dissolve, but persists
for many years, breaking down into micro-particles that further absorb toxic pollutants and enter the
marine food web with unknown consequences
for marine life.
With less sea ice many
marine ecosystems will experience more light, which can accelerate the growth of phytoplankton, and shift the balance between the primary production by ice algae and water - borne phytoplankton, with implications
for Arctic
food webs.
Scientists are concerned that ocean acidification — a gradual acidification of seawater — could have negative consequences
for marine organisms,
marine food webs, and entire ecosystems.
For example, the warm - water phase of ENSO is associated with large - scale changes in plankton abundance and associated impacts on
food webs (Hays et al., 2005), and changes to behaviour (Lusseau et al., 2004), sex ratio (Vergani et al., 2004) and feeding and diet (Piatkowski et al., 2002) of
marine mammals.