Our new paper published in Science today examines the impacts of extreme warming events in the oceans ('marine heatwaves') on ecosystem services globally.

. 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.

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. 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.

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 🌊🌱😎🤿🐟

RT @wembleystadium: A win that generations of Geordies have been waiting for. To celebrate, we are giving you the chance to win a signed….

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:

This experiment was logistically very challenging and required a huge team effort! Great to see the paper out and kudos to @OwenMarineBio 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:

@King_Nath1 @EmmajStuart @thembauk @mba_rv @TritoniaDiving 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 loss of canopy increases 5-fold the light reaching the reef which leads to 7-fold increase in understory algae & 9-fold increase in kelp recruits; ms

There's been some healthy debate about which baseline to use when quantifying marine heatwaves (and other extreme climatic events). We summarize the pros/cons, explain why it matters and provide some recommendations in our new ms:.

RT @SmithCoralReef: Looking for a new #postdoc in #Phycology & #Seaweed research on the methane mitigating #Asparagopsis.@Scripps_Ocean #cl….

Detailed demographic studies of marine foundation species are needed, esp at species range edges, to understand responses to warming and other changes. In our new ms we quantified popn structure of Laminaria ochroleuca at leading range edge in SW UK.

Interesting time of year for UK kelp forests as kelp have stopped growing and are getting 'fouled' by lots of epibionts, the red algae on reef and kelp has largely senesced, & much detritus has washed out or degraded leaving a spooky 'clean' vibe before winter storms.

Check out our Editorial for a new virtual issue in @NewPhyt in which we pull together recent papers on "Marine macrophytes in a changing world: mechanisms underpinning responses and resilience to environmental stress" #seaweed #kelp #marinebiology

RT @NewPhyt: On the cover of our #LatestIssue: A dense kelp forest dominated by Laminaria hyperborea at around 15 m depth in Orkney, Scotla….

RT @marineheatwaves: Several regions continue to experience persistent MHW activity. Most notably: (i) The Caribbean, where absolute temps….

RT @IUCN: What is a marine heatwave, and how do they threaten marine ecosystems and coastal communities?. To limit their impacts, it’s vita….