Marianne Wootton

Marine Biological Association of the UK | MBA · Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey

The biological carbon pump is responsible for much of the decadal variability in the ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) sink, driving the transfer of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. A mechanistic understanding of the ecological drivers of particulate organic carbon (POC) flux is key both to the assessment of the magnitude of the ocean CO2 sin...

Among non-native copepods, the calanoid Pseudodiaptomus marinus Sato, 1913 is the species probably spreading at the fastest pace in European and neighbouring waters since its first record in the Adriatic Sea in 2007. In this contribution, we provide an update on the distribution of P. marinus in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, along the Atlantic...

The biological carbon pump is responsible for much of the decadal variability in the ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) sink, driving the transfer of carbon from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. A mechanistic understanding of the ecological drivers of particulate organic carbon (POC) flux is key to both the assessment of the magnitude of the ocean CO2 sin...

The boreal copepod Calanus finmarchicus sequesters substantial amounts of carbon (C) in the deep layers of the North Atlantic Ocean through their contribution to the “lipid pump.” This pump is driven by these zooplankton descending from the surface layers to spend prolonged periods at depth during which time they metabolise substantial lipid reserv...

The South Sandwich Islands (SSI) are a biologically productive archipelago situated in the eastern Scotia Sea to the south of the eastward flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The islands support important populations of higher predators, including several penguin species, seals and humpback whales. Despite this, the plankton ecology of the...

The changing Arctic environment is affecting zooplankton that support its abundant wildlife. We examined how these changes are influencing a key zooplankton species, Calanus finmarchicus, principally found in the North Atlantic but expatriated to the Arctic. Close to the ice-edge in the Fram Strait, we identified areas that, since the 1980s, are in...

Non-fibrous microplastics sampled by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey throughout the North Atlantic Ocean during 2018 have been recorded and a selection (n = 17, or 16.7%) physically and chemically characterised. The average abundance of non-fibrous particles captured by the plankton silks and detectable by microscopy was estimated to...

Since 2007, the non-indigenous calanoid copepod Pseudodiaptomus marinus Sato, 1913 has been increasingly recorded in numerous European sites, spreading at an unexpectedly fast pace over a short time-span. This species presents specific biological and behavioural traits which make it of particular interest for ecological and applied research topics....

Within atolls, deep water channels exert significant control over local hydrodynamic conditions; which are important drivers of planktonic distributions. To examine planktonic responses to oceanography, this study tested the effect of proximity and exposure to deep oceanic flushing through these channels on water properties and planktonic assemblag...

Plastic production has increased exponentially since its use became widespread in the 1950s. This has led to increased concern as plastics have become prevalent in the oceanic environment, and evidence of their impacts on marine organisms and human health has been highlighted. Despite their prevalence, very few long-term (>40 years) records of the...

Supplementary information for Ostle, C., Thompson, R. C., Broughton, D., Gregory, L., Marianne, W., & Johns, D. G. (2019). The rise in ocean plastics evidenced from a 60-year time series. Nature Communications, (2019), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09506-1

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey, operated by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS), is the longest running, most geographically extensive marine survey in the world. Since its inception in 1931, the Survey has monitored near surface planktonic communities, including pelagic copepods, providing essential baseline...

9.1 Background The ecological importance of marine zooplankton cannot be overestimated. Throughout the world's oceans, plankton species abundance and diversity impact, determine and drive global cycles, food-web structure and ecosystem stability (Banse, 1995; Sommer, 1996; Lindley et al., 2003). Plankton communities mediate transfer of organic...

Pseudodiaptomusmarinus was described from eastern Asian waters and has subsequently been spread in the Indo-Pacific region, but has only been found in European waters since 2007. The presence of the species in inshore waters of the Southern Bight of the North Sea, in Calais Harbour and off Gravelines was noted in 2010 and 2011. The present records...

This study describes phenotypic and genotypic variations in the planktonic copepod, Centropages typicus (Copepoda: Calanoida) that indicate differentiation between geographical samples. We found consistent differences in the morphology of the chela of the sexually modified fifth pereiopod (P5) of male C. typicus between samples from the Mediterrane...

At the base of the marine foodweb, the free floating plant life of the sea (phytoplankton) provide food for the animal plankton (zooplankton) which in turn provide food for many other marine organisms. The carrying capacity of marine ecosystems in terms of the size of fish resources and recruitment to individual stocks as well as the abundance of m...

The following CPR Atlas contains the biogeographical distribution of 240 common pelagic plankton taxa of the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. The biogeographical charts were produced using data collected by the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey from 1958 to 1999, incorporating over 155 000 plankton samples. The methodology on spatial int...