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'We have a real heritage in describing plankton and being at the forefront of using these discoveries to map the impact of climate change and health of our oceans over millions of years,' explained Professor Lars Stixrude, Head of UCL Earth Sciences. UCL scientists have been at the forefront of this field since the 1960s, when the earliest scanning electron microscopes first revealed plankton's exquisite and elaborate calcium-based forms. This includes images of the entire ancient and modern diversity of plankton across ~4500 species. It follows the characterisation of about 400 new species of plankton microfossils by UCL researchers which are available to see in an open-access online library called Nannotax. The paper describes the new species which was discovered living in the South Atlantic Ocean today and highlights the two distinctive coccoliths that form the plankton's shell. The discovery involving researchers from UCL, Institut de Ciencias del Mar (Barcelona, Spain), Kochi University and Yamagata University (both Japan) was published today in Journal of Nannoplankton Research. 'The plankton also take carbon out of the atmosphere to use as energy and so their demise may increase carbon dioxide levels further, compounding the issue,' explained Dr Jeremy Young (UCL Earth Sciences), co-author of the study. 'The negative impact of increases in carbon dioxide on the growth rate and numbers of plankton could have serious food supply implications for ocean organisms as they form the base of the food chain with many larger creatures dependent on them including fish and whales. Recent research, studying both fossil and modern coccolithophores, has shown that these plankton are resilient to global warming and ocean acidification but increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere impairs their growth rates and overall production. Ocean acidification is a symptom of climate change whereby rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean, increasing its acidity.īy studying fossilised plankton shells or 'coccoliths' in samples from drilling down deep into the ocean bed, scientists can map the impact of climate change and other global events over a very long period of time and use this to inform what might happen to in the future. It is the ability to produce this calcite shell that is being disrupted through ocean acidification.

'Although microscopic, the plankton are so abundant that they are visible from space as swirling blooms in the surface oceans, and form our most iconic rocks with their calcite forms making up the bulk of the white chalk cliffs and downs of southern England,' explained study co-author Professor Paul Bown (UCL Earth Sciences).

The plankton - called coccolithophores - are single cells surrounded by a calcite shell that varies drastically in shape across different species, acting as armour against predators. They are also incredibly valuable for studying the impact of climate change on ocean life now and across the previous 220 million years.

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A newly discovered species of ocean plankton, Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, has been named by UCL researchers in honour of the critically acclaimed BBC Blue Planet series and its presenter Sir David Attenborough.Īlthough measuring only thousandths of a millimetre, these plankton play a pivotal role in marine ecosystems as a crucial source of food for many ocean dwelling organisms.