BIOACID Programme - Natural Environment Research Council

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BIOACID: Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification
particles (Arrigo, 2007; Engel et al., 2004). These processes, if representative for pelagic
autotrophic communities, could give rise to a biologically driven feedback to the climate system.
What controls the release of dissolved organic matter by either phytoplankton or bacteria, and
how these substances affect the nutrition and aggregation of pelagic organisms needs further
investigation in order to improve the description of biogeochemical turnover processes and their
sensitivities to increasing pCO2 (Figure 4).
Theme 1 will study plankton communities in controlled lab experiments on several relevant time
scales, from short-term physiological adjustment, to acclimation, to longer-lasting evolutionary
adaptation. Treatment levels, experimental set-ups and response variables were chosen
concordantly among diverse target groups in order to ensure full comparability of results in the
subprojects.
Fig. 4: Compartments and interactions studied in Theme 1
Theme 1 will combine laboratory-based work with field campaigns to assess the responses of
natural plankton communities. Given the importance of coastal areas to fisheries and other
marine resources and services, the coastal ecosystems constitute an important target region. Insitu
experiments and sampling will be carried out in the Baltic Sea, an enclosed sea with high
nutrient input and anthropogenic pressures.