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SUMMARY:Unprecedented changes on the physiology of Antarctic organisms ove
 r the last centuries - Simone Moretti\, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
DTSTART:20251203T173000Z
DTEND:20251203T190000Z
UID:TALK237550@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:91369
DESCRIPTION:As anthropogenic carbon continues to accumulate in the ocean
 –land–atmosphere system\, constraining the future state of the ocean i
 s increasingly urgent. The ocean absorbs roughly half of all anthropogenic
  CO₂ emissions\, and the Southern Ocean alone accounts for about 40% of 
 this global sink. This capacity depends strongly on the efficiency with wh
 ich phytoplankton utilize available nutrients. The Southern Ocean also sup
 ports a diversity of endemic species that have evolved unique physiologica
 l adaptations to a region now undergoing rapid environmental change. Multi
 ple lines of evidence—spanning historical observations to numerical mode
 lling—indicate that profound\, multifaceted shifts are already underway\
 , posing risks to both ecosystems and the services they sustain. However\,
  most available datasets extend back only a few decades\, limiting our abi
 lity to disentangle natural variability from anthropogenic forcing.\n\n\nN
 ew high-resolution archives provide deeper temporal context. Nitrogen isot
 ope compositions of proteinaceous organics preserved within diatom frustul
 es (DB-δ¹⁵N) from the West Antarctic region reveal unprecedented chang
 es in nutrient consumption and food-web structure over the past century. I
 n the same areas\, we document a remarkable dwarfing of Antarctic benthic 
 foraminifera over the last 150 years\, observed consistently across multip
 le sites. This size reduction suggests increasing metabolic stress\, likel
 y driven by the combined impacts of warming and deoxygenation associated w
 ith enhanced incursions of Circumpolar Deep Water onto the Antarctic shelf
 . Together\, a more efficient biological pump and shrinking body sizes in 
 benthic communities may trigger cascading ecological consequences\, ultima
 tely affecting the resilience of Antarctic ecosystems to ongoing climate c
 hange.\n
LOCATION:Latimer Room\, Clare College
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