Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 3
Climate Change Effects on
Marine Phytoplankton
Valeria Ana Guinder
1,
*
and
Juan Carlos Molinero
2
Introduction
Phytoplankton play a central role in marine ecosystems by yielding
ca
.
50% (~ 50 Gt C/year) of the global primary production (Longhurst et al.
1995, Field et al. 1998). By their central role at the base of the food web
these communities shape biogeochemical cycles, carbon export from the
euphotic zone to the deep ocean and energy fl uxes through food web
networks (Finkel et al. 2010, van de Waal 2010). Whilst in coastal areas,
microphytobenthos, macroalgae and halophytes also contribute in carbon
fi xation (Kromkamp et al. 2006, Connell and Russell 2010), in the open ocean,
phytoplankton constitute the only source of primary production to sustain
pelagic food webs (Falkowsky and Oliver 2007, Chavez et al. 2011). In fact,
phytoplankton blooms are an essential condition for fi sheries and for the
benthic-pelagic coupling in coastal systems (Legendre 1990). These rising
biomass events mainly occur in response to changes in light and nutrients
driven by the seasonal cycles of radiation, temperature and water column
stability; while the end phase has been ascribed to nutrient depletion and
zooplankton grazing pressure (Sommer et al. 2012). Spring blooms are
