Plankton Haven’t Been the Same Since the Industrial Revolution

Centuries of fossil records and live-capture data show that some marine plankton populations reflect a clear change in response to human industrialization and the warming oceans that have come with it. The ratio of plankton species in these communities shifted in proportion to changes in sea temperature, indicating that ocean warming has deeply altered these populations and their wider marine ecosystems. Planktonic foraminifera provide a comprehensive fossil record because their hard calcite shells are preserved well in sediment layers at the bottom of the ocean, says lead author Lukas Jonkers, a paleontological oceanographer at the University of Bremen in Germany.

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com