Microorganism shell acts as a time capsule
A research team at IGV led by Helen Coxall is investigating the response of marine plankton to climate change in the Arctic Ocean. The team has sampled planktonic foraminifera from the ocean and seafloor sediments during the SAS cruise in 2021 with Icebreaker /Oden/. They will use these samples to investigate how different species have responded to warm periods in the past and how they are adapting to modern global warming. This article contains more information about the project and about the progress the researchers have made so far.
At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, empty shells from dead foraminifera, microscopic single-celled organisms, accumulate. The calcium carbonate shells can be compared to time capsules because the million-year-old fossils can provide valuable information about climate change. During the Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 expedition with the icebreaker Oden, one of the projects was about documenting these organisms.
Read the article at The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat's website
Last updated: September 6, 2022
Source: Department of Geological Sciences