Global warming likely to cause abrupt changes to the algae community, says study
it predicts that a continued global rise in temperature would extend the warm-water hemisphere boundaries south-wards over the next 100 years.
Last updated 16th Sep 2021
Global warming is likely to cause abrupt changes to the algae community, according to research from the University of East Anglia.
It found that the UK could be severely affected if climate change continues at its current rate.
This is because it predicts that a continued global rise in temperature would extend the warm-water hemisphere boundaries south-wards over the next 100 years.
It also suggest this will happen more abruptly than previously thought.
Professor Thomas Mock from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences told us that if nothing is done UK fisheries could be bear the brunt of these changes the most.
"Cold water community could be replaced by warm water communities. This has potential consequences for the current fishes stocks that depends on algae as a food source. So you could see diversity change in fish around the UK."
But Professor Mock told us that if we globally cut carbon emissions as soon as possible, "these changes can be slowed down".
He says doing this will "mitigate the more severe down-stream effects of these changes".
He went on to say that the research was "logistically very difficult" because it was a "pole to pole study that involved us having to go to the Artic".
This research was led by scientists at UEA in collaboration with the US Department of Energy, Joint Genome Institute and the Earlham Institute.
The major study was conducted over more than 10 years by an international team of 32 researchers, from institutions including the University of Exeter in the UK and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.
Professor Mock concluded by saying: "This could never have been done by just one person or one research institute".