Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego have for the first time shown that increased acidification of ocean water in an upwelling region reduces the availability of iron for phytoplankton, thereby threatening to reduce overall phytoplankton productivity. Given that phytoplankton sit at the base of the oceanic food web, acidification is a concern to all life in these upwelling regions. Upwelling regions are among the most productive due to the concentration of nutrients brought from deep water, driven by coastal winds. Results for this study are published in the journal Nature Communications.
While discussing the impact of this research, lead author Robert Lampe, a graduate student at Scripps Oceanography and JCVI stated, “This study provides critical insight into how key organisms in this ecosystem may respond to future conditions. Our current projections for how organisms and biological processes will respond to climate change are still quite uncertain and this brings us a step closer towards understanding change in the ecosystem.”
Aboard the R/V Atlantis, a research vessel owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), JCVI and Scripps scientists spent 32 days in the California Current, a cold-water Pacific Ocean Current that runs southward along the western coast of North America. The team began their experiments—to better understand how acidification affects marine microbial life—near Big Sur, California and moved progressively farther from shore, performing four experiments in total.
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J. Craig Venter Institute, 10 November 2023. Press release.
