Small organisms, big changes in the sea

Listener Dr Richard Kirby, contacted us with a question about swallows, and in speaking with him it turned out that as well as an interest in migrating birds, Richard had a fascinating day job.

Richard works on the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey. Running for over 75-years the project maps the distribution of plankton in the world's oceans and "is the world's largest plankton survey."

Plankton sit at the very bottom of the food chain, and are of vital importance to everyone who depends on the sea from right-whales to Rick Stein. The tracking of changes in the world's plankton reveals a great deal about the effect warming oceans are having on the sea's ecology. In the film above and the slideshow below we learn that crabs are on the rise, young cod are finding it hard to make a living, and pipefish are booming, which surprisingly isn't a boon for seabirds like the puffin.

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