Response of diatoms distribution to global warming and potential implications: A global model study
Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: Using a global model of ocean biogeochemistry coupled to a climate model, we explore the effect of climate change on the distribution of diatoms, a key phytoplankton functional group. Our model results suggest that climate change leads to more nutrient‐depleted conditions in the surface ocean and that it favors small phytoplankton at the expense of diatoms. At 4xCO2, diatoms relative abundance is reduced by more than 10% at the global scale and by up to 60% in the North Atlantic and in the subantarctic Pacific. This simulated change in the ecosystem structure impacts oceanic carbon uptake by reducing the efficiency of the biological pump, thus contributing to the positive feedback between climate change and the ocean carbon cycle. However, our model simulations do not identify this biological mechanism as a first‐order process in the response of ocean carbon uptake to climate change.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters
DOI: 10.1029/2005gl023653
Authors: L. Bopp, O. Aumont, P. Cadule, S. Alvain, M. Gehlen
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, CEA Paris-Saclay - Etablissement de Saclay, CEA Paris-Saclay
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2042376721