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Keith Dancey · January 31st 05, 03:28 PM posted to uk.sci.weather

In article , Graham P Davis writes:
Keith Dancey wrote:

snip

The biggest 'biomass' (and the one we know least about) that takes CO2 out
of the atmosphere is the plankton.

Last summer witnessed one of Britain's biggest seabird disasters, when
many colonies around Shetland bred not a single bird.

Thousands of dead adult guilletmots have been found along Scotish coasts.

Arctic Terns failed to raise a single chick.

Kittiwakes failed to raise a single chick.

Fulmar populations are crashing.

The reason for this disaster was the collapse of the plankton population
at the base of the food chain. A 3C rise in sea temperature killed off
all the plankton species.

Any idea whether the same thing happened in the summer of 1968, when the
ocean west of Scotland was also 3 DegC above normal? Of course, this was
probably a different "normal".

Sorry, I don't have any information on that. Breeding season failures are
not uncommon - these are relatively long-lived birds with low numbers of
eggs - but it demonstrated an example of the fragility of wildlife (plankton
are wildlife) to climate change.

Also, it is possible that the northern isles have different plankton species
to those west of Scotland (something else I don't know) and that those around
Shetland were more susceptible to over-heating?

But it does rather put a dampener on any hopes that increased atmospheric CO2
can be mopped up by plankton.

Cheers,

keith

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