An international publication led by Plymouth Marine Laboratory highlights how upgrading current plankton models is critical to understanding the scale of global climate issues. Plankton may be small, but they power the
An international publication led by Plymouth Marine Laboratory highlights how upgrading current plankton models is critical to understanding the scale of global climate issues.
Plankton may be small, but they power the planet. feeding marine life and underpinning global biogeochemical cycles. Yet the models used to simulate their influence on ocean ecosystems have not kept pace with developments in understanding of how biology and ecology functions, according to a new publication led by PML’s Professor Kevin Flynn.
Plankton models form the core of marine ecosystem simulators, used from regional resource and ecosystem management through to climate change projections, and are essential for us to predict what the future may hold for our planet, and prepare accordingly.
However, in the perspectives paper, ‘More realistic plankton simulation models will improve projections of ocean ecosystem responses to global change’, published July 1 in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, a team of over 30 international experts argue that plankton models need updating to reflect contemporary knowledge, requiring urgent joint attention from both empiricists and modelers.
“Plankton are mainly microscopic organisms that grow in the ocean (and also in inland waters) that support the base of the food chain. No plankton—no
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