Global Marine Ecological Status Report no. 11 Based on observations from the global ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder surveys Global Alliance of Continuous Plankton Recorder Surveys (GACS) Global Marine Ecological Status Report Based on observations from the global ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder surveys Citation: Edwards, M., Helaouet, P., Alhaija, R.A., Batten, S., Beaugrand, G., Chiba, S., Horaeb, R.R., Hosie, G., Mcquatters-Gollop, A., Ostle, C., Richardson, A.J., Rochester, W., Skinner, J., Stern, R., Takahashi, K., Taylor, C., Verheye, H.M., & Wootton, M. 2016. Global Marine Ecological Status Report: results from the global CPR Survey 2014/2015. SAHFOS Technical Report, 11: 1-32. Plymouth, U.K. ISSN 1744-0750 Published by: Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science ©SAHFOS 2016 ISSN No: ISSN 1744-0750 Contents 2....................................................................Introduction Summary for policy makers 8....................................................................Global CPR observations North Atlantic and Arctic Southern Ocean Northeast Pacific Northwest Pacific South Atlantic and the Benguela Current Eastern Mediterranean Sea Indian Ocean and Australian waters 20...................................................................Applied ecological indicators Climate change Biodiversity Ecosystem health Ocean acidification 30....................................................................Bibliography Introduction The Global Alliance of Continuous Plankton Recorders, known as GACS, brings together the regional CPR surveys around the globe to foster collaboration within the CPR community and to act as an interface between it and other global observing programmes. GACS brings together the expertise of approximately 60 plankton specialists, scientists, However, there are still large areas of the mid-Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans where technicians and administrators from 14 laboratories around the world, towing a common there are no sustained plankton monitoring. One of the long-term challenges will be and consistent sampling tool, the CPR, from about 50 vessels. Working together, pooling filling these gaps. GACS has established links or formal affiliations with a number of key our data and resources, is essential in order to understand the effects of environmental international stakeholders including, GEOBON, IOC, SCOR, SCAR, GOOS, SOOS, POGO and changes on plankton biodiversity at a global level. Numerous local and regional monitoring ICES/PICES. At present, there are large areas of the world’s oceans, notably the sub-tropical and observational programmes have been established in the past, but have lacked a and tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans where there are no regular holistic perspective on plankton biodiversity in response to global events such as global CPR surveys or plankton monitoring in general. GACS aims to improve coverage in those warming and ocean acidification. GACS is working towards that global perspective using areas and offers support in facilitating the establishment of new surveys through training CPR data, a well recognised and standardised methodology. It will also allow us to assess and capacity building. changes and events at a local or regional level in a world-wide context. At the heart of GACS is the development of the global database of CPR data that will allow us to make An important goal of GACS is to develop indicators for scientists and policy makers such assessments of local, regional and global changes. Subsequently, an important to monitor and understand global plankton changes as well as providing the global product of GACS will be the production of a regular Ecological Status Report for global community with useful products such as ‘Essential Ocean Variables’ that can be used to plankton biodiversity. monitor and assess marine biodiversity and ecosystem health. CPR surveys are now well established in the North Sea, North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Ocean. New surveys are underway in Brazil, Australia, the eastern Mediterranean, New Zealand, Japan and South African waters with an Indian survey under development. These surveys provide coverage of much of the world’s oceans. Current GACS Partners Global Marine Survey Country Affiliation North Atlantic and Arctic UK Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) North East Pacific Canada Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) Ecological Status Southern Ocean Antarctica, Australia Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) North West Pacific Japan Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) Report Japanese Antarctic Programme Japan National Institute for Polar Research (NIPR) New Zealand New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) Plankton are the foundation of marine food webs and US East Coast USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center support virtually all life in our oceans. The Global Marine Southern Ocean Antarctica, Brazil Federal University Rio Grande (FURG) Ecological Status Report is an assessment of the state of Integrated Marine Observing System Australia Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) the global oceans based on observations from the global Benguela Current Large Marine South Africa Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Benguela Ecosystem Current Commission (BCC) ocean Continuous Plankton Recorder surveys. China China Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IO-CAS) This report consists of two main parts: (1) the general plankton status Marion Dufresne France Institut Paul Emile Victor (IPEV), Université Pierre et Marie around the world from the CPR global network using potential Essential Curie (UPMC) Ocean Variables; and (2) an applied indicator approach to the NE Atlantic Cyprus Cyprus The Cyprus Institute (CyI) and European waters. The applied indicator approach focuses on providing Indian India National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) information for important marine management and policy issues such as climate warming impacts, biodiversity, pollution and fisheries. Further information can be found at www.globalcpr.org GACS/status 3 Plankton communities as ecological indicators Generally, two definitions of ecological indicators exist. One is an indicator of an environmental (biotic or Plankton abiotic) property (e.g. a biological indicator of climate change and its impacts) that can be statistically measured e.g. indicative value of a variable. The other definition is similar to a performance indicator; in which indicators management actions can be measured (e.g. a significant change in status is expected to trigger a What are plankton management response). Planktonic indicators are particularly useful in and why are they important? managing the marine environment as they can provide information on a whole multitude of management Biological variable Example Notes issues, ranging from climate change impacts; fisheries Plankton at the base of the marine food web are made up ofBu lthek Sta freetus V afloatingriables plantCh llifeoroph ofyl l, thebiom seaass , t(phytoplankton)otal Not particula rlyand se nthesitiv e animaland a ba planktonsic indicato r(zooplankton), dicult to and marine wildlife; eutrophication/pollution; ocean abundance, EOVs, interpret change and predict through models. Cheaper to which power marine ecosystems around the world by providing food and energy for other marine life. The vast majority of plankton are microscopic but acidification; marine biodiversity and invasive species. (index) community size. monitor. Monitored using taxonomic methods, satellite they can reach up to 2 m in diameter in the form of large jellyfish. The word plankton derives from the Greekobser planktosvations an dmeaning various op ‘totica ldrift’. techno loThegies . productivity of In an applied ecological indicator sense, the following marine ecosystems in terms of the size of fish and shellfishSe nresourcestinel Specie sas well as theInd ivabundanceidual species ooff hi gmarineh Ind wildlifeividual s p(e.g.ecies cseabirdshosen to b eand high lymarine indicat ivmammals)e and high lyis highly planktonic indicators are used to track changes that indicative value and/or key sensitive to ecosystem change and/or key structural species. are particularly important to policy and management, dependent on variations in the abundance, timing and composition of the plankton.struct u rPlanktonal species. Talsoarge teplayd C a n crucialbe high lroley var iinab lclimatee but uct uchangeations m othroughre easy to the export of (univariate taxa) for example changes in marine ecosystem health, the important greenhouse gas CO2 to the deep ocean by carbon sequestration in inwhatdica tisor s knownfor polic yas a nthed ‘biologicalinterpret. M pump’odels ea sandier t oare pre dalsoict if nresponsibleiche requirem efornts the 50% of the world’s oxygen production. Plankton can also be said to indirectly drive modernmanag ecivilisationsment requirem ebynt sproviding, known. M ousnit owithred ustheing toilax onandom icgas an d depositsmolecular mweet huseod s. today. climate change and acidification impacts. Ecological This comes from the huge accumulation of carbon from plankton on the seafloore .gover. clim ageologicalte change, time.M Withoutolecular m eplanktonthods are ntheot y eEartht comp lewouldtely qu beant itdevoidative th eofy marine indicators