Climate change making aquatic organisms smaller

‘On left: microscopic photo of the spring diatom bloom with large organisms dominating. On right: warming of six degrees with smaller flagellates dominating.’ Image credit:IFM-GEOMAR, via PhysOrg.com I want to be careful not to exaggerate the significance of this work. That said, I find it disturbing to learn that a warming ocean selects for smaller aquatic organisms over a human time scale. One implication is that, in a few human generations, climate change could turn the specialized plankton feeding behaviors of fishes, selected for over many thousands of years, into an evolutionary disadvantage. Entire ecosystems could be altered. PhysOrg reports on research confirming this effect in “Climate change influences the size of marine organisms.” They note that researchers found this tendency in bacteria, algae, zooplankton and fishes in the North and Baltic Sea and in French rivers. …

Honey We Shrunk The Plankton, Climate Change Making Aquatic Organisms Smaller