Warming water and receding sea ice in the Western Antarctic Peninsula is changing the local plankton community with potential consequences for climate change, according to research led by scientists from Duke University and Duke Kunshan.
Warming water and receding sea ice in the Western Antarctic Peninsula is changing the local plankton community with potential consequences for climate change, according to research led by scientists from Duke University and Duke Kunshan.
The five-year study, conducted in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, found water temperature and sea-ice cover to be dominant factors affecting the makeup of microscopic sea life, which had declined in species richness and evenness, with those changes leading to less ocean absorption of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas associated with global warming.
The study’s lead author, Yajuan Lin, an assistant professor of biogeochemistry at Duke Kunshan University, in China said:
“This invisible forest in the ocean sucks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so changes to it are incredibly important. The research suggests that forest may be doing less of this in the Western Antarctic Peninsula.”
Read more at British Antarctic Survey
Photo Credit: MemoryCatcher via Pixabay
