Meroplankton ecology in a changing ocean (39748/106078)

The oceans are threatened globally by the impacts of human activities, in particular ocean pollution and climate change. With the project PELAGIC I aim to cast light on how the combination of multiple anthropogenic stressors affects marine communities. Specifically, I will investigate how changes related to climate change (e.g. ocean warming) and pollution (e.g. crude oil, microplastics) work in concert to affect the ecology of an understudied group of marine organisms: Meroplankton (“temporary plankton”) includes planktonic larval stages of animals living on the seafloor (e.g. mussels, crabs). This is not only an ecologically important group but also of economic interest, e.g. as seafood. Therefore, impacts on meroplankton can drastically affect the dynamics of marine coastal ecosystems and services.

The project includes research stays with scientists at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) that are leaders on meroplankton ecology and biochemical approaches in marine organisms, respectively.

Partners
National Institute of Aquatic Resources, DTU Aqua (coordinator)
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon, USA
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Funding
The project is funded by the Villum Foundation. 

Research area: Oceanography