Smallest plankton grow fastest with rising CO2
Could the future of the ocean depend on its smallest organisms? An experiment conducted as part of the European project EPOCA, coordinated by Jean-Pierre Gattuso of the Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche (CNRS/UPMC), has shown that pico- and nanoplankton benefit from increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the seawater, causing a disruption in the food chain. Two climate regulation processes are also affected: carbon export to the deep ocean and production of dimethyl sulfide, a gas that counteracts the greehouse effect. The study was conducted in the Arctic by a team of researchers, mainly from GEOMAR, CNRS and UPMC, supported by the Institut Polaire Français. These results have been published in a special issue of Biogeosciences.