Category

Plankton

Science group

Biodiversity

Our vision is for the restoration of diverse and productive ecosystems that are maintained and managed sustainably.

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Science group

Plankton

Plankton support the majority of marine ecosystems and the human communities that depend on these ecosystems. Through primary production, phytoplankton fix carbon to provide food, and generate oxygen, for higher trophic levels. Plankton both affect our climate and are affected by it. Understanding t...

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  DEcentrAlised Learning for automated image analysis and biodiversity monitoring (DEAL)

  DEAL will create an application that allows owners of biological image data to participate in decentralised, collaborative networks, where they can leverage the data and expertise of all participants to obtain better, higher efficacy classification results for their data.
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  Coccolithophore controls on ocean alkalinity (CHALKY)

  The CHALKY project aims to determine how coccolithophore calcium carbonate production, recycling and export from the surface ocean affects air-sea CO2 fluxes and the ocean’s carbon sink, and how this may change in a warming ocean.
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  Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS)

  The Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS) will radically improve the understanding of how environmental changes are affecting plankton, the microscopic organisms at the foundation of the marine food chain.
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  Quantifying the contribution of sympagic versus pelagic diatoms to Arctic food webs and biogeochemical fluxes (MOSAiC SYM-PEL)

  At the base of the Arctic food web, there are three major primary producers: small flagellates, diatoms living in open water (pelagic) and diatoms growing in sea ice (sympagic). The role of the sea ice diatoms is perceived differently across the research community. For ecologists they are central to...
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  Optical data modelling and assimilation (OPTIMA)

  OPTIMA will advance the capacity of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) to accurately assess the state of the marine environment, by developing the first ever system that assimilates ocean-colour absorption data of plankton functional types into an ecosystem model which incl...
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  Ocean color and biogeochemistry (CBIOMES)

  Earth observation of ocean color remains our only window into the pelagic ecosystem at synoptic scales. It is a rich source of data, and chlorophyll concentration is the principal product, which provides valuable information on how the light from the sun (the energy source for the entire ecosystem) ...

11 June 2026

Detected from space: 20 years of data shows declining photosynthesis in UK and surrounding waters 

A new study by scientists at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has revealed a significant long-term decline in ocean productivity across large parts of the north-east Atlantic, raising concerns about the future health of marine food webs, fisheries and the ocean’s ability to absorb and sequester carbon dioxide.

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  PML announces new Head of Group for Environmental Intelligence

  It was announced this week that

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  Mapping toxin-producing phytoplankton; the scourge of shellfisheries

  Researchers in the UK, including phytoplankton experts from Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), have shown how the distributions of two phytoplankton groups, known to produce natural toxins that can halt shellfish harvesting, have changed in the North East Atlantic over the last six decades.

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  PML’s Professor Shubha Sathyendranath MBE awarded prestigious Nansen Polar Bear Award

  A legacy of marine science: PML’s 

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  Fish – the missing ingredient in climate models?

  New research led by PML’s Dr Helen Powley reveals that when fish are included in marine ecosys...