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Implications of Increased Solar UVB for Aquatic Ecosystems

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The Role of the Stratosphere in Global Change

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 8))

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Abstract

There is strong evidence that marine organisms in the upper layers of the sea are influenced by increased ultraviolet radiation resulting from declines in the thickness of stratospheric ozone. Early evidence supporting this hypothesis included the fact that wavelengths of potentially damaging ultraviolet radiation can penetrate to ecologically significant depths and laboratory findings that many marine organisms are extremely sensitive to this radiation. Laboratory results within the past few years have provided significantly improved estimates of the biological weighting function for damage to phytoplankton by UV radiation, and investigated possible protective and repair mechanisms in these organisms. Recent field work, making use of the Antarctic ozone hole to provide variable UVB flux on a natural phytoplankton community, has provided the first conclusive evidence for a direct ozone-related effect on an aquatic system giving further evidence of the sensitivity of marine organisms to UVB. Much recent work has been motivated by the large springtime depletion of stratospheric O 3 over the Antarctic which has also led to increased accuracy in atmospheric models necessary for the quantitative computation of UV fluence at high latitudes.

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  1. CSL/CRSEO, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1140 Girvetz Hall, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Raymond C. Smith

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  1. Raymond C. Smith
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  1. Service d’Aéronomie du CNRS, BP 3, F-91371, Verrières-le-Buisson, Cedex, France

    Marie-Lise Chanin

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Smith, R.C. (1993). Implications of Increased Solar UVB for Aquatic Ecosystems. In: Chanin, ML. (eds) The Role of the Stratosphere in Global Change. NATO ASI Series, vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78306-7_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78306-7_24

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