The role of marine plankton in the Earth's chemistry

2014年，政府间气候变化专门委员会指出，“全球自然气候变化的速度比目前人为气候变化的速度慢，导致了重大的生态系统变化和物种灭绝”。人们越来越关注这种快速的气候变化对海洋生态系统及其为人类提供的服务的影响。海洋钙化浮游生物有超过1亿年的惊人化石记录。有趣的是，海洋碳酸盐的组成从以球石藻为主的软泥演变为有孔虫（海洋原生生物）和球石藻之间的平衡。本项目旨在评估1)海洋学与改变碳酸盐工厂的演化之间的联系；2)碳酸盐生产的现代驱动因素3)碳酸盐生产对气候变化响应的脆弱性。您将使用地质记录和地球系统模型来确定这种变化背后的环境和生态驱动因素，以及是否存在一个临界点，超过这个临界点，海洋浮游生物就无法应对气候变化的影响。项目目标和方法。该项目的目的是测试一个假设，即环境变化将在未来减少海洋浮游生物的碳酸盐产量。考虑到适应的时间尺度以及浮游生物生态和多样性的复杂性，实验室实验是不可能进行的。因此，该项目将结合生物对几种环境扰动的反应的地质记录及其对地球系统建模的碳循环的影响。您将与主管一起确定最有希望的事件并生成跨事件的大小记录。您将(1)确定非生物和生物驱动因素对海洋碳酸盐长期组成的影响。您将(2)在这些历史时间间隔的地球系统模型中使用一种新颖的基于大小结构特征的浮游生物模型来解开不同的变化驱动因素。您将(3)使用模型来量化特征在过渡期间可能发生的变化(4)将特征的模型变化与地质记录的证据进行比较。您将考虑不同未来的环境压力，并预测碳酸盐产量将如何变化。布里斯托尔和埃克塞特的实验室有自动显微镜、流式细胞仪和sem，用于分析球粒的大小。

Project BackgroundIn 2014 the IPCC stated that "natural global climate change at rates slower than current anthropogenic climate change caused significant ecosystem shifts and species extinctions". There is growing concern what impact this rapid climate change has on marine ecosystems and the services these provide to humans.Marine calcifying plankton have an amazing fossil record of more than 100 million years. Interestingly, the composition of marine carbonates evolved from a coccolithophore dominated ooze to a balance between foraminiferal (marine protist) and coccolithophore. This project aims to assess 1) the link between oceanography and evolution in changing this carbonate factory; 2) modern drivers of carbonate production 3) and vulnerability of carbonate production in response to changing climate. You will use the geological record and an Earth system model to determine the environmental and ecological drivers behind this change and whether there is a tipping point beyond which marine plankton cannot deal with the impact of climate change.Project Aims and Methods.The aim of the project is to test the hypothesis that environmental change will reduce carbonate production by marine plankton in the future. Laboratory experiments are impossible to conduct which would consider timescales of adaptation and the complexity of plankton ecology and diversity. Therefore, this project will use a combination of the geological record of biotic response to several environmental perturbations and its impact on the carbon cycle with Earth System modelling. You will, jointly with the supervisors, identify the most promising events and generate size records across events. You will (1) determine the impact of abiotic versus biotic drivers on the long term composition of marine carbonates. You will (2) use a novel a size structure trait-based plankton model within an Earth system model of these historical time intervals to disentangle different drivers of change. You will (3) use the model to quantify how traits might change across the transitions (4) compare modelled changes in traits to evidence from geological record. You will consider environmental pressures under different futures and develop projections of how carbonate production might change in response. The labs in Bristol and Exeter have automated microscopes, flow cytometers, and SEMs for size analysis of coccoliths.