ORCID
- Matthew M. Holland: 0000-0002-8308-4216
- Abigail McQuatters-Gollop: 0000-0002-6043-9563
Abstract
Plankton form the base of marine food webs, making them important indicators of ecosystem status. Changes in the abundance of plankton functional groups, or lifeforms, can affect higher trophic levels and can indicate important shifts in ecosystem functioning. Here, we extend this knowledge by combining data from Continuous Plankton Recorder and fixed-point stations to provide the most comprehensive analysis of plankton time-series for the North-East Atlantic and North-West European shelf to date. We analysed 24 phytoplankton and zooplankton datasets from 15 research institutions to map 60-year abundance trends for 8 planktonic lifeforms. Most lifeforms decreased in abundance (e.g. dinoflagellates: −5 %, holoplankton: −7 % decade−1), except for meroplankton, which increased 12 % decade−1, reflecting widespread changes in large-scale and localised processes. K-means clustering of assessment units according to abundance trends revealed largely opposing trend direction between shelf and oceanic regions for most lifeforms, with North Sea areas characterised by increasing coastal abundance, while abundance decreased in North-East Atlantic areas. Individual taxa comprising each phytoplankton lifeform exhibited similar abundance trends, whereas taxa grouped within zooplankton lifeforms were more variable. These regional contrasts are counterintuitive, since the North Sea which has undergone major warming, changes in nutrients, and past fisheries perturbation has changed far less, from phytoplankton to fish larvae, as compared to the more slowly warming North-East Atlantic with lower nutrient supply and fishing pressure. This more remote oceanic region has shown a major and worrying decline in the traditional food web. Although the causal mechanisms remain unclear, declining abundance of key planktonic lifeforms in the North-East Atlantic, including diatoms and copepods, are a cause of major concern for the future of food webs and should provide a red flag to politicians and policymakers about the prioritisation of future management and adaptation measures required to ensure future sustainable use of the marine ecosystem.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2023-11-10
Publication Title
Science of the Total Environment
Volume
898
ISSN
0048-9697
Acceptance Date
2023-07-11
Deposit Date
2023-07-17
Embargo Period
2023-07-18
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions from our networks of pelagic habitats experts who have enabled and progressed this work, to the OSPAR ICG-COBAM and BDC members and convenors, and to the OSPAR secretariat. We are grateful for the funding received from DEFRA's marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (mNCEA) Programme, and from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund for the project: “North-east Atlantic project on biodiversity and eutrophication assessment integration and creation of effective measures (NEA PANACEA)”, financed by the European Union's DG ENV/MSFD 2020, under agreement No. 110661/2020/839628/SUB/ENV.C.2. AM-G was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NE/R002738/1 Knowledge Exchange fellowship scheme. This work makes use of the LifeWatch observation data and infrastructure (provided by VLIZ) funded by Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) as part of the Belgian contribution to LifeWatch. AA was funded by NERC's National Capability Long-term Single Centre Science Programme, Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science, grant number NE/R015953/1, contributing to Theme 3.1—Biological dynamics in a changing Atlantic and 4— Fixed Point Observations. The CPR Survey would not be possible without the support of the shipping industry, nor the dedication of the past and present team. Current funding includes NERC, Grant/Award Number: NE/R002738/1 and NE/M007855/1; EMFF; Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science, Grant/Award Number: NE/R015953/1, DEFRA UK ME-5308, NSF USA OCE-1657887, DFO CA F5955- 150026/001/HAL, NERC UK NC-R8/H12/100, Horizon 2020: 862428 Mission Atlantic and AtlantECO 862923, IMR Norway and the French Ministry of Environment, Energy, and the Sea (MEEM). This work was made possible by contributions of plankton time-series datasets from dedicated researchers across Europe.
Keywords
Continuous plankton recorder, Environmental indicators, Food webs, North Sea, North-East Atlantic, Marine ecosystem management, Pelagic habitats, Plankton
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Holland, M., Louchart, A., Artigas, L., Ostle, C., Atkinson, A., Rombouts, I., Graves, C., Devlin, M., Heyden, B., Machairopoulou, M., Bresnan, E., Schilder, J., Jakobsen, H., Llody-Hartley, H., Tett, P., Best, M., Goberville, E., & McQuatters-Gollop, A. (2023) 'Major declines in NE Atlantic plankton contrast with more stable populations in the rapidly warming North Sea', Science of the Total Environment, 898. Available at: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165505
