🧵 1) The biology in the seas off the UK coast is changing as the sea warms due to climate change bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…. I've written about the changes seen in the seas around the UK on X before, but, as we continue to see more changes, the thread keeps getting longer. Here's the thread now, including salps. See 2 @MarkPoynting @BBCJustinR @bbcnews @WMNNews 2) The changes we see around the UK are part of a predicted global phenomenon as our seas warm due to climate change cnrs.fr/en/press/unpre… (research paper here: nature.com/articles/s4155…). Part of those changes are likely to be the recent appearance of common octopus. See 3

🧵 1) Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) are booming along Cornwall and Devon coasts. A warm water species they are raiding crab pots and being landed in large numbers by inshore commercial potters and fetching £7/kg. Their increase in abundance tells a fascinating story. See 2. 2.) The increase in common octopus may be the most recent manifestation of the northwards 'march' of the marine ecosystem as the northeast Atlantic warms. The scientist Walter Garstang (1868 – 1949) said that, in his mind, a previous increase in abundance of common octopus at the beginning of the 20th C was due to heat: plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/213/…. See 3

1) Do you love the ocean? Citizen scientists are collecting phytoplankton data in a unique study using a piece of equipment developed by the Pope's astronomer in 1865, and they're getting results. Read this thread to find out the full story and how you can join in. See 2 2) In the late 18th century sailors learned to lower a white object, often a plate, from the side of their boat into the water as a sounding method to determine the water clarity; different bodies of water had different clarity, for example waters close to shore were often less clear due to suspended sediment. See 3

1) What a wonderful day of wildlife watching near Plymouth. To learn why the incredible bluefin tuna have migrated to UK seas and also much more, read this thread. It is vital to understand the reason for their recent appearance. See 2


2) This article "Why are bluefin back in UK seas" (not my image) that I wrote in January's Fishing News describes why Tuna are here, but the following thread goes into more interesting details abut bluefin tuna and other species. See 3fishingnews.co.uk/news/why-are-b…

1) Amazing! Pelagia noctiluca, a typically Mediterranean jellyfish, was blooming in the plankton around my boat in the inshore waters off Plymouth today. Is this another signal of ecosystem change?, read on... 2) In 2011 I began to notice bluefin tuna when I was plankton sampling inshore off Plymouth. We published a paper in 2019 describing how this animal moves north and south in the Atlantic as the north Atlantic sea temperature warms and cools, respectively: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

1) Remarkable. Apart from some Beroe cucumis I saw in the water yesterday (my nets caught none), there were virtually no zooplankton in my fine or coarse net samples, just a few cladocera, bipinnaria & copepod nauplii. Is it me? Here's a video of Beroe from last year @zeiss_micro 2) If my observations are real, and it's not 'due to me' (I've noticed the inshore zooplankton declining for about 6 months) it will likely, have effects for the food chain and recruitment, but what could be the cause?

.@BBCFarmingToday Bluefin tuna in UK seas and other fish species. This is a thread to shed more insight on your 8th December programme and this article (See 2)bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… 2) Bluefin tuna started reappearing in UK seas about 12 years ago. I, along with colleagues, gave an explanation in 2019 in our article in the journal 'Science Advances', free to read here: (see 3)science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

1) An October 17th BBC news report of a dead bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus)
that washed up on a Dorset beach suggested this signalled a species comeback. This has provoked me to write this thread about just some of the wildlife changes in UK seas. (See 2)bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… 2) Bluefin tuna started reappearing in UK seas about 12 years ago. I, along with colleagues, gave an explanation in 2019 in our article in the journal 'Science Advances', free to read here: and reported by the BBC here: . (see 3)science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

1) Could this explain the salp bloom? Surface (Level 4) Phytoplankton Chlorophyll-a evolution from 1st August and covering the period of the Salp bloom first sampled inshore off Plymouth on 8th August and persisting throughout the month. @zeiss_micro (see 2) 2) Graphical representation for Land's End and Plymouth. Daily Level 4 chlorophyll-a from the CMEMS datastore at a spatial resolution of 4 km, using an interpolation method to fill gaps in missing areas. (Data prepared by colleagues J Castant and G Beaugrand, Univ Lille) (see 3)

@mcsuk 2) Here is a graphic (see 3) @mcsuk 3) When we wrote the above paper the AMO was considered a reproducible climate cycle in the North Atlantic. Since then however, it has been realised the AMO is an artefact of several warming and cooling phenomena that appeared to give a long-term cyclical effect. (see 4)

1) A rare, remarkable event. In the sea surface from at least Dartmouth in S Devon to Portheras in N Cornwall, UK, our planktonic relative (it's a chordate) the salp Salpa fusiformis is blooming. If this was a bloom of animals on land it would be NEWS and we (see 2) @zeiss_micro 2) would be both amazed and curious to know why. The event is so rare that crab fishermen that have worked the sea for generations are asking "what are these creatures that are so abundant?" My plankton samples have been full of these animals for the last month (see 3).

1) Following in Charles Darwin's wake, I still use nets to sample the plankton today. This thread is a series of 32 weekly, short videos narrated by #DavidAttenborough to introduce this remarkable world of microscopic life. RT to make this series a success.
@zeiss_micro 2) Charles Darwin: Many of these creatures so low in the scale of nature are most exquisite in their forms and rich colours – It creates a feeling of wonder that so much beauty should be apparently created for so little purpose. @zeiss_micro

@mcsuk @wwf_uk @ClientEarth @GoodFishGuideUK 1) In addition to understanding the effect of fishing pressure on a stock (top down control) we must also understand the role of the environment (bottom up control) if we are to understand variations in the abundance of a stock. @mcsuk @wwf_uk @ClientEarth @GoodFishGuideUK 2) In particular, climate, through its influence on sea temperature is an important bottom up driver of cod abundance in the North Sea. (We, as warm-blooded animals that can also engineer our habitat, often overlook the influence of temperature on cold-blooded animals.)