![]() ![]() "The big worry is when change happens so quickly that the ecosystem can't recover," says Ostle, adding that dramatic temperature spikes can lead "whole fisheries to collapse." Smaller warm water plankton are also replacing more nutritious cold water ones, often also with differing seasonal cycles, meaning the species that feed on them need to adapt or move too. The CPR Survey has documented a decisive shift of plankton towards both the poles in recent decades, as ocean currents change and many marine animals head for cooler areas. "The big thing that we're seeing is warming," Ostle, coordinator of the Pacific CPR Survey, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) as she demonstrates the plankton recorder off the coast of Plymouth in Britain. As well as helping produce much of the oxygen we breathe, they are a crucial part of the global carbon cycle. But they are also part of an intricately balanced system that helps keep us all alive. Plankton – organisms carried on the tides – are the foundation of the marine food web. ![]()
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