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Coral Reef Arks: An In Situ Mesocosm and Toolkit for Assembling Reef Communities

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Marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and carbon cycles.

Grégory Beaugrand¹, Martin Edwards, Louis Legendre

¹Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences, Unité Mixte de Recherche Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 8187, Station Marine, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1, 62930 Wimereux, France. gregory.beaugrand@univ-lille1.fr

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|May 19, 2010

Summary

Global warming is increasing marine biodiversity in the North Atlantic, but smaller plankton species are dominating. This shift negatively impacts the biological carbon pump and Atlantic cod populations.

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Area of Science:

Marine biology
Climate change science
Ecosystem dynamics

Background:

Climate change is a known driver of species loss.
The spatial reorganization of biodiversity due to global warming requires further investigation.
Marine ecosystems provide essential services to humans.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the latitudinal changes in phytoplankton and zooplankton biodiversity in the North Atlantic.
To examine the relationship between rising biodiversity and the mean size of zooplankton.
To assess the impact of plankton community reorganization on carbon flow and marine ecosystem services.

Main Methods:

Analysis of long-term plankton survey data from the extratropical North Atlantic.
Statistical analysis to correlate biodiversity trends with environmental changes.
Modeling the effects of altered plankton community structure on the biological carbon pump.

Main Results:

A significant increase in phytoplankton and zooplankton biodiversity observed in the North Atlantic over recent decades.
A concurrent decrease in the mean size of zooplanktonic copepods.
Evidence suggests a reorganization of the planktonic ecosystem towards smaller organisms.

Conclusions:

The rise in North Atlantic biodiversity is linked to a decrease in plankton size, potentially reducing ecosystem services.
This challenges the traditional view of increased biodiversity as solely beneficial for ecosystem stability.
The shift towards smaller plankton may negatively affect the biological carbon pump and commercially important fish stocks like Atlantic cod.