Building blocks of ocean food web in rapid decline as plankton productivity plunges
Senior DFO scientist says the cause of the collapse is unknown
Jane Adey· CBC News·
Falling plankton numbers is another blow for fisheries like crab and shrimp, which have been in decline. (CBC)
hey're teeny, tiny plants and organisms but their impact on ocean life is huge.
Phytoplankton and zooplankton that live near the surface are the base of the ocean's food system. Everything from small fish, big fish, whales and seabirds depend on their productivity.
"They actually determine what's going to happen, how much energy is going to be available for the rest of the food chain," explained Pierre Pepin, a senior researcher with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John's.
Pepin says over the past three to four years, scientists have seen a persistent drop in phytoplankton and zooplankton in waters off Newfoundland and Labrador.
"Based on the measurements that we've been taking in this region, we've seen pretty close to 50 per cent decline in the overall biomass of zooplankton," said Pepin. "So that's pretty dramatic."
Measuring five millimetres or less, phytoplankton contain chlorophyll to capture sunlight and use photosynthesis to turn it into chemical energy, which is later eaten by ocean creatures. (Photo courtesy of DFO)
Scientists say local testing reveals half the amount of plankton in a square metre of water today. It's not just a problem here, declining plankton numbers are a global phenomenon.
It's a difficult idea to convey to the average person who might not understand the ocean ecosystem, but Pepin likens it to walking into a grocery store and instead of seeing the shelves full, they're only half-full.
Listen to Jane Adey's coverage on CBC Radio's The Broadcast:
The Broadcast
The base of the ocean food chain is in trouble
Hear about the problems for plankton. Reaction time to an offshore oil blow out. Can it be improved? 23:16
"You know if you saw half the number of birds, if you saw half the number of fish in the water you'd pay attention. Well, this is a signal to say we need to pay attention."
Alarm bells are going off
So what's causing this dramatic decline?
Scientists here haven't detected anything in particular that can be linked to the plunge in productivity, but they are worried.
Phytoplankton are tiny plants and zooplankton are tiny animals. Zooplankton feed on phytoplankton near the surface of the ocean. (Photo courtesy of DFO)
"When it persists — for in our case now for three or four years — in the back of my mind, at the very least, little alarm bells start going off because it means that something fundamental may have changed in the food web."
Pepin says it is difficult to understand how long it takes the effect of this lack of basic food to make its way through the ocean ecosystem.
Scientists have to advise managers on how to handle fish stocks but without clear evidence of causes and effects, it becomes a very difficult job.
"How do we act on this? This is a real challenge."
FUN FACT - Plankton provide about 70% of the oxygen humans breathe, welcome to what happens when the Global Temperature rises 2 degrees.
This only happened once before and it killed 98% of all life and is the only known mass extinction of insects.
Don't believe me? Many paleontologists think this is what caused the Permian extinction. This is the extinction event where so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of land-dwelling life took significantly longer than after any other extinction event, possibly up to 10 million years.
Do some research yourself. If the Oceans biosphere collapses, so does most of the life on earth.
We as a species are causing the largest, the most accelerated extinction of life on this planet, and it will only end with us.
If you want to do something that has ANY effect - Sorry but you need to stop buying products, instead fix them, reduce your carbon footprint, stop having children & grow your own food.
Sadly if everyone did this our global and nationalized capitalistic paradigm will collapse. But at least we all might have some time to think of solutions to this problem, and maybe who is to blame and who should foot the bill. Because if history shows anything - it wont be the richest, it will be your children & the poorest.
Philippe Cormier
just look at the herbicides and pesticides being made in factories, that's what is heading into our ocean inevitably.
Darren Marsh
This should be on the national news page. This is very scary. The ocean is dying. It can't take our abuse any more.
Agnieszka Marszalek
@Darren Marsh , that is very true, it should be on the front pages of all national newspapers. And what's worse - the governments have known about this for decades, the scientists have been saying that since the 1970s.
Wil Brown
Increased pollution levels, ocean acidification, and climate change. One thing is for certain, our continued reliance on fossil fuels and our reluctance to embrace cleaner alternatives will lead to our downfall.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre
As a senior oceanographer and quantitative ecologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada for more than 30 years, Dr. Pierre Pepin has dedicated much of his research toward the development of integrated approaches to ocean management. He has published extensively on the effects of changes in environmental conditions and trophic interactions on population and ecosystem productivity and their consequences to our relationship with Canada’s Oceans as well as a diversity of other topics. Much of his research has dealt with the dynamics of early life stages of fish and since the inception of a large scale oceanographic monitoring program his research activities have expanded to include plankton dynamics, biogeography, and the importance of changes in community structure and climate on productivity of marine systems.
Pierre’s perspective is based on a pragmatic view of how qualitative and quantitative knowledge can be applied in development of advice on management of renewable ocean resources. In light of the complexity of interactions among organisms and their environment, we can only effectively identify the processes that result in major changes in living resources while more subtle interactions may be impossible to reliably understand. The general principles that we can identify across ecosystems should serve as foundation of the basic principles from which to forecast the future state of Canada’s Oceans even though their impact may not be readily apparent in all populations or ecosystems. Pierre is currently co-chair of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization’s Working Group on Ecosystem Science Advice and leads the implementation an ecosystem approach in the provision of advice for ecosystems of the Newfoundland Shelf.
Delineation of Ocean Acidification and Calcium Carbonate Saturation State of the Atlantic Zone
ACCASP # NFLD 2
Description
Atlantic Zone biogeochemical monitoring stations (circles) with sites proposed for the acidification survey in purple. Credit: DFO
Ocean acidification, caused by the formation of carbonic acid as atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolves in the ocean, is expected to have profound effects on marine ecosystems. Organisms that form shells and skeletons of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), including phytoplankton, zooplankton and other invertebrates, will be particularly affected. As ocean acidity increases, there is a decline in the degree to which sea water is saturated with CaCO3 (called the “saturation state”), making it more difficult for organisms to form their protective outer shells. The Northwest Atlantic contains the largest inventory of CO2 from human activities in the world.
In the autumn of 2014, this project sampled a range of variables related to ocean acidification—including dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA), and pH (a measure of acidity)—at 102 sites in the Atlantic Zone in order to establish baseline measurements of ocean acidification status. DIC and TA will be used to estimate the saturation state of CaCO3 at each site. Results from these analyses will be used to develop regional maps of bottom water saturation states, which will enable evaluation of the potential risk of damage to crabs, shrimp and other shellfish. The maps will inform state of the ocean assessments and decision-making related to the fisheries management, existing and future marine protected areas, NAFO Footnote 1 assessments of vulnerable marine ecosystems, and other ecosystem-related decisions.
Pierre Pepin Chair, Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program, Newfoundland and Labrador Tel.:(709) 772-2081 Email:Pierre.Pepin@dfo-mpo.gc.ca Stephen Snow Division Manager, Oceans, Newfoundland and Labrador Tel.:(709) 772-2852 Email:Stephen.Snow@dfo-mpo.gc.ca Kevin Anderson Director, Fisheries Management, Newfoundland and Labrador Tel.:(709) 772-4543 Email:Kevin.Anderson@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Team Member(s)
Kumiko Azetsu-Scott, DFO, Maritimes Region Blair Greenan, DFO, Maritimes Region Stephen Punshon, DFO, Maritimes Region Catherine Johnson, DFO, Maritimes Region Michel Starr, DFO, Quebec Region Peter Galbraith, DFO, Quebec Region Diane Lavoie, DFO, Quebec Region Joël Chassé, DFO, Gulf Region Gary Maillet, DFO, Newfoundland and Labrador Region
