Dan Smale

Impacts of marine heatwaves on biodiversity and ecosystem services: our new paper in Nature Reviews Biodiversity is out!
doi.org/10.1038/s443.... @natrevbiodiv.nature.com @uwaoceans.bsky.social @filbeek.bsky.social @dansmale1.bsky.social

Historic seaweed surveys reveal long-term changes in UK’s kelp forests | Marine Biological Association A new scientific study has unearthed compelling insights into how the UK’s iconic kelp forests are responding to climate change — by revisiting seaweed

..... the resolution and detail of the original quantitative surveys was astonishing - perhaps the oldest quadrat based seaweed survey? Not sure, but pretty neat all the same... General piece here... www.mba.ac.uk/historic-sea...

..... whereas populations in W Scotland seem to be more stable over decadal time scales. Both regions have warmed significantly but L. hyperborea closer to upper thermal limit (and trailing range edge) in SW England and summertime temps now stressful......

NEW PAPER: We discovered some v old but v detailed kelp data in MBA archive (Mary Parke's surveys from the 1940s!! 🤯🤯) and resurveyed some 80 years later. Found that Laminaria hyperborea popns in SW England in decline, likely to due warming.... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Yet again we are seeing "unprecedented" marine heatwaves in 2025.

buff.ly/mnEcYcV

What will we see in 2025 & beyond? @dansmale1.bsky.social comments, “If this continues through the summer we would expect to see widespread biological impacts. This is a significant warming event."

buff.ly/U6iBTBN

🥁 🥁 🥁 The #ITRS2025 scientific program is online 🙌 itrs-home.org/scientific-p... please share! 42 days until 🚀
#marineecology @nessocon.bsky.social @katynicastro.bsky.social @aurelien-boye.bsky.social @louisefirth.bsky.social @pippajmoore.bsky.social @dansmale1.bsky.social @ifremer.bsky.social

So much life springing up in Plymouth Sound area at this time of year.... bloom is picking up, kelp is luscious, animals getting going: 5-6 m viz, 11 deg C, fair conditions. Great start to the summer diving season 🫡

So good to get the 2025 MBA Dive Season up and running! Despite recent torrential rain, viz was pretty decent and conditions were fair in Plymouth Sound. Training day and first surveys in the bag, great team effort 🌊🌱😎🤿🐟 @thembauk.bsky.social

Check out our ✨new✨ OA paper in Reviews in Aquaculture on whether the European seaweed farming industry can mitigate climate change through carbon capture ➡️➡️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
explore our key findings in the graphical abstract ⬇️
#bluecarbon #seaweedaquaculture

Photo lower half underwater, upper half in air showing kelp underwater and rocky/hilly coastline in background

🦤🌐🧪
The decomposition dynamics of 3 important #kelp species in the Northeast Atlantic with focus on the loss of dissolved carbon. We found that DOC is released in large amounts initially, providing valuable data around the complex processes involved in #carbon cycling of kelps.
 bit.ly/meps_755_63

congrats! 👏

Surge in marine heatwaves costs lives and billions in storm damage – study Floods, whale strandings and coral bleaching all more likely, say researchers, as 10% of ocean hits record high temperatures in 2023-24

Want to learn how #MarineHeatwaves are impacting our future? 🌊🔥 Check out this new article from
@theguardian.com ➡️ buff.ly/43ilX4G

Dr Katie Smith, Postdoc Research Assistant at the MBA, reveals the impact of marine heatwaves on our #ocean. Discover the research here 🔗 buff.ly/3Qy8dLJ

Ocean extremes as a stress test for marine ecosystems and society - Nature Climate Change In 2023–2024, widespread marine heatwaves associated with record ocean temperatures impacted ocean processes, marine species, ecosystems and coastal communities, with economic consequences. Despite wa...

Summertime marine heatwaves (MHWs) in 2023/2024 were unprecedented and had wide-ranging biological, physical and societal impacts. Need to develop better response plans and adaptation/intervention approaches as MHWs intensify under climate change. New ms in Nat CC: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Image credit: © The Ocean Agency / Ocean Image Bank

The rising intensity of #MarineHeatwaves is putting our ocean at risk 🌊🔥

A groundbreaking new study led by Dr Katie Smith, Postdoc Researcher at the MBA, reveals the summers of 2023-24 saw 3.5 times more marine heatwave days than ever recorded before.

➡️ buff.ly/3Qy8dLJ

📷 The Ocean Agency

Absolutely blown away and stunned by this news! Amazing to receive recognition from such a prestigious and historic organisation. Obvs this is not possible with out all the amazing students, ECRs and long term collaborators ive been fortunate to work with (eg www.marineheatwaves.org and kelp nerds)

This experiment was logistically very challenging and required a huge team effort! Great to see the paper out and kudos to Owen Harris who led this as part of his MRes degree at MBA/Uni Plymouth

However, temps below the canopy were up to 14 deg C lower, as canopy fronds buffered subcanopy fronds from extreme stress and enhanced resilience of the population. Intraspecific facilitation likely to be very important during thermal stress.

We heated the air inside multiple tents on the low shore to simulate an extreme atmospheric heatwave with temperatures of up to ~47 deg C for multiple low tide periods. This was highly stressful (but not lethal) to canopy fronds.

New paper hot of the press for #phycologyfriday !!!! 🌱🌊🌞We conducted a warming experiment in the field to test stress responses of the intertidal habitat forming seaweed Fucus serratus: nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

💯- send your amazing work to society journals like the ESA, BES, ASLO ones, new phytologist, JMBA, etc , much better for all concerned 😄

Seagoing Research Coordinator Hours: 37 hours Monday to Friday (some weekend and unsociable hours required)

Here's another one: mymba.mba.ac.uk/job/seagoing...

You asked, we listened.

UK-based early/mid level marine roles, hand-picked for our community.

Screenshot your favourite or save this post for later!

🦑🌊🌐🌍🐟🦤

As a NUFC fan of 30 years, i found the entire article to be perfect poetry. What a performance 🤌

Are you interested in working aboard a multidisciplinary research vessel? We're looking for a Seagoing Research Coordinator to help lead exciting marine research & outreach activities! 🌊

🗓️ Apply by 2nd March 2025.
📍 Plymouth, UK.
For more details and to apply ➡️ https://buff.ly/3EqRQO7

#OceanJobs

Shows how important kelps are as foundation organisms that alter environmental conditions and structure local communities/biodiversity 🌿🌊📈🐟🌞😀

We conducted a 'classic' kelp canopy removal exp in mixed Laminaria forests in southwest UK. Results show that loss of canopy increases 5-fold the light reaching the reef which leads to 7-fold increase in understorey algae & 9-fold increase in kelp recruits; ms: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hi, everyone - it’s #PhycologyFriday! Be sure to check out the awesome folks in the “Algal Appreciation” starter pack, & lmk if you’d like to be added. go.bsky.app/RwMphxS

Wonderful to be at the celebration of the Marine Research Plymouth Alliance this evening. Plymouth really is a powerhouse of Marine science - it's great to be here! @thembauk.bsky.social @plymouthmarine.bsky.social @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social @plymuni.bsky.social 🌊

Successful large-scale and long-term kelp forest restoration by culling sea urchins with quicklime and supported by crab predation In 2013, a large scale (70 hectare) kelp forest restoration experiment was conducted in a sea urchin barren that had been stable for 45 years. We used 200 tons of quicklime to eradicate the sea urchin...

Successful large-scale and long-term kelp forest restoration by culling sea urchins with quicklime and supported by crab predation | Marine Biology https://buff.ly/4fe1j8m 🦑🌎🧪

Virtual Issue: Marine macrophytes in a changing world

Key papers that have shed light on the responses of #seagrasses and habitat-forming #macroalgae to environmental change.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1469-8137.marine-macrophytes