Biological Oceanography
in a Changing Ocean

The hypothesis and general objective of this project is to verify if the sea surface temperature increase, together with the micro- and macronutrient fertilization that may result from natural upwelling (due to an increase in mesoscale process’ occurrence) and/or atmospheric deposition (caused by the potential aerosol intensification), have a combined effect on primary production and phytoplankton community structure. The temperature increase and intensified fertilization rates may be causing a shift in phytoplankton populations, which may become dominated by larger species. Thus, potentially posing alterations in higher trophic levels (fish). The study will be conducted through controlled experiments in which the covariation between fertilization rates and temperature will be analysed.