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Phytoplankton change in the North Atlantic

Nature volume 391, page 546 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

A marked increase in global temperature over the last century was confirmed by the second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change1. Here we report significant positive and negative linear trends from 1948 to 1995 in phytoplankton measured by the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey in the northeast Atlantic and North Sea that might reflect a response to changing climate on a timescale of decades. Spreading of unusually cold waters2 from the Arctic might have contributed to the decline in phytoplankton north of 59o N. Further south, phytoplankton season length and abundance seem to have increased.

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Figure 1: A map defining the boundaries of the three areas for which Phytoplankton Colour data have been averaged.
Figure 2: Contour plots of mean monthly Phytoplankton Colour during 1948-95 for the central (C) North Sea, central northeast (CNE) Atlantic and northern northeast (NNE) Atlantic.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Martin Edwards

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, PL4 8AA, Plymouth, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, PL1 2PB, Plymouth, UK

    Philip C. Reid, Harold G. Hunt & Andrew J. Warner

Authors
  1. Philip C. Reid
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  2. Martin Edwards
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  3. Harold G. Hunt
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  4. Andrew J. Warner
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Reid, P., Edwards, M., Hunt, H. et al. Phytoplankton change in the North Atlantic. Nature 391, 546 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35290

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