Document of bibliographic reference 319994

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Diatoms dominate and alter marine food-webs when CO₂ rises

Abstract

Diatoms are so important in ocean food-webs that any human induced changes in their abundance could have major effects on the ecology of our seas. The large chain-forming diatom Biddulphia biddulphiana greatly increases in abundance as pCO₂ increases along natural seawater CO₂ gradients in the north Pacific Ocean. In areas with reference levels of pCO₂, it was hard to find, but as seawater carbon dioxide levels rose, it replaced seaweeds and became the main habitat-forming species on the seabed. This diatom algal turf supported a marine invertebrate community that was much less diverse and completely differed from the benthic communities found at present-day levels of pCO₂. Seawater CO₂ enrichment stimulated the growth and photosynthetic efficiency of benthic diatoms, but reduced the abundance of calcified grazers such as gastropods and sea urchins. These observations suggest that ocean acidification will shift photic zone community composition so that coastal food-web structure and ecosystem function are homogenised, simplified, and more strongly affected by seasonal algal blooms.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000505598100006

Bibliographic citation

Harvey, B.P.; Agostini, S.; Kon, K.; Wada, S.; Hall-Spencer, J.M. (2019). Diatoms dominate and alter marine food-webs when CO₂ rises. Diversity 11(12): 242. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d11120242

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true