Project Background
A collaboration between the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, this project will quantify the drivers and ecological impacts of ocean darkening at large spatial scales.
Recent decades have seen growing concern about the ecological implications of changing lightscapes both on land and sea (Figure 1). In coastal oceans, increasing concentrations of suspended particulate matter (SPM), Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), and/ or phytoplankton have been perturbing natural intensities, cycles, and spectra of lightscapes since the mid 20th century. These suspended or dissolved constituents scatter and attenuate light, leading to darker (potentially less productive) coastal waters. As a result, circadian, circalunar and circannual light cycles may be obscured, and the ability of organisms to perform colour guided behaviours is reduced.
The role of large-scale land and coastal processes - and their relative contributions to light absorbing constituents in coastal waters - remain largely unsolved, and limited to statistical correlations. This fundamental lack of understanding has precluded the introduction of specific measures to address coastal darkening in international, national, or local policy frameworks. There has also been no systematic exploration of the photobiological impacts resulting from darkening of coastal waters that would justify the implementation of policy interventions aimed at improving light transmission.
