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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what data her Department holds on plankton (a) density and type (b) around the British Isles; and whether areas of cold water plankton have been replaced by warm water type. [134010] Mr. Morley: The Department does not hold data on plankton density and type, but does fund the international marine environmental charity `Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science' (SAHFOS) which is based in Plymouth, UK. SAHFOS currently operates the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey, which has been in operation since 1931 and provides one of the longest and largest marine biological data sets in the world. More than 70 years of information on the density of over 450 plankton types is contained in the database. Plankton samples have been collected from all over the north Atlantic but predominantly from waters around the British Isles. Plankton are at the bottom of the marine food-web and because of this they are an essential food-source to virtually all marine life from fish to marine mammals and sea birds. The results of monitoring plankton communities can be used to monitor the state of the marine environment and have been employed to assess the ecological health of the waters around the British Isles. Recent research using data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey has shown significant changes to the North sea ecosystem. Cold-water species of plankton that are an important food-source for cod and salmon have been displaced northwards, particularly over the last decade, and appear to be being replaced by more southerly warmer-water species.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

134010; 413 c904-5W;413 c904W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Seas and oceans Plankton

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk