About this Research Topic
Marine zooplankton are the vital link between pelagic and ice-associated (sympagic) primary production and higher trophic animals in polar food webs as they channel energy from the base of the food web to apex predators. Environmental changes such as ocean warming and ocean acidification can impact zooplankton distribution, biodiversity, reproduction success and ultimately survival, potentially disrupting the energy flow from the lowest to the highest trophic level with yet uncertain consequences for established food-web structures and ecosystem functioning. Superimposed on this habitat change, and facilitated by sea-ice decline, anthropogenic pollution globally from long-range transport and locally from communities and increasing tourism and shipping activities can act as an additional stressor on polar food webs. The fate of zooplankton in changing Arctic and Antarctic food webs is scarcely understood and requires more information on large spatial and temporal scales to understand the functioning of zooplankton communities under current conditions and to confidently predict their fate under future change.
We aim at assessing the effects of environmental change and anthropogenic pollution, singularly and in combination, on the fitness of polar zooplankton today and in the future. Focus will be put on the consequences of habitat change in the polar regions, including sea-ice decline as a result of increasing seawater temperatures and resulting community changes, as well as other changes derived from anthropogenic pressures such as ocean acidification and pollution. Furthermore, we aim at exploring the presence of anthropogenic pollutants (e.g., microplastics, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, PFAS) in the polar environment, their bioavailability and transfer along the marine food chain as well as their impact on individual species or at the community level. Besides the impact of individual stressors, information on the largely unknown cumulative impact of multiple stressors is of special interest. Research should be based on traditional and state-of-the-art analytical approaches (e.g., stomach contents, trophic markers, metabarcoding, various 'omics' approaches) as well as innovative (multi-stressor) experimental approaches and ecological modelling. We welcome simulation modelling to predict anticipated impacts due to increasing climate change on marine food webs.
Manuscripts dealing with zooplankton research spanning all three realms - sympagic, pelagic, and benthic - are welcome. Topics that could be explored might shed some light on the poleward migrations of species due to rising temperatures, changes in phenology of primary production events (earlier ice melt, earlier onset of sympagic and pelagic blooms) leading to changes in availability of carbon and energy sources (mismatch between producers and consumers) or the intake, accumulation, effect and transfer of contaminants to and from zooplankton species. How do these stressors impact the diet, condition, biodiversity, distribution of lower trophic levels in polar oceans, singularly and in combination? Results can derive from field studies, experimental approaches, and/or modelling efforts. Ultimately, we want to understand potential coping /plasticity and adaption mechanisms of marine zooplankton when exposed to varying stressors and how climate change may alter Arctic and Antarctic marine food webs in the coming decades.
We aim at assessing the effects of environmental change and anthropogenic pollution, singularly and in combination, on the fitness of polar zooplankton today and in the future. Focus will be put on the consequences of habitat change in the polar regions, including sea-ice decline as a result of increasing seawater temperatures and resulting community changes, as well as other changes derived from anthropogenic pressures such as ocean acidification and pollution. Furthermore, we aim at exploring the presence of anthropogenic pollutants (e.g., microplastics, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, PFAS) in the polar environment, their bioavailability and transfer along the marine food chain as well as their impact on individual species or at the community level. Besides the impact of individual stressors, information on the largely unknown cumulative impact of multiple stressors is of special interest. Research should be based on traditional and state-of-the-art analytical approaches (e.g., stomach contents, trophic markers, metabarcoding, various 'omics' approaches) as well as innovative (multi-stressor) experimental approaches and ecological modelling. We welcome simulation modelling to predict anticipated impacts due to increasing climate change on marine food webs.
Manuscripts dealing with zooplankton research spanning all three realms - sympagic, pelagic, and benthic - are welcome. Topics that could be explored might shed some light on the poleward migrations of species due to rising temperatures, changes in phenology of primary production events (earlier ice melt, earlier onset of sympagic and pelagic blooms) leading to changes in availability of carbon and energy sources (mismatch between producers and consumers) or the intake, accumulation, effect and transfer of contaminants to and from zooplankton species. How do these stressors impact the diet, condition, biodiversity, distribution of lower trophic levels in polar oceans, singularly and in combination? Results can derive from field studies, experimental approaches, and/or modelling efforts. Ultimately, we want to understand potential coping /plasticity and adaption mechanisms of marine zooplankton when exposed to varying stressors and how climate change may alter Arctic and Antarctic marine food webs in the coming decades.
Keywords: Polar food webs, Climate change, Marine zooplankton, Sea-ice retreat, Ocean acidification, Anthropogenic pollution
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
