Stress and Global change biology

We study the impact of environmental and anthropogenic stressors, including global warming and ocean acidification, on various processes, species and ecosystems.

The World’s ocean are changing. Human activity is responsible for the release into the ocean of a wide variety of chemical substances with properties having the inherent potential to cause undesirable consequences to man and/or the environment. Moreover, as a consequence of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and associated climate change, oceans are becoming warmer (global warming) and more acidic (Ocean Acidification). These massive and rapid environmental changes will have major consequences for marine species and ecosystems.

This represents a broad, problem-oriented area of research where several different competences and groups in the Department of Marine Ecology collaborate on topics related to the effects of global change on marine organisms and habitats, from the genetic to ecosystem level.

CeMEB with its core ACME- project (Adaptations to a Changing Marine Environment), together with the two research platforms GRIP (Göteborg Research Centre for Integrative Physiology) and EGO (Ecotoxicology - from Gene to Ocean) are natural meeting places for many of these initiatives.

The Department is a leading national actor and an internationally recognized centre in many areas related to global change biology. We are further developing our ongoing research programme on the causes and consequences of biological invasions as well as the effects of global warming and ocean acidification on the marine environment. This focus extends to several other aspects of environmental stress (direct and indirect effects of eutrophication, oxygen depletion and pollution) and its impact on marine organisms at the genetic, molecular, ecophysiological and ecosystem levels.

Stress and global change biology is the successful marriage between ecology and eco-toxicology, a new discipline at the crossroads of ecology, physiology and genomics. It aims to investigate the impact of a range of stressors such as toxic agents that often interact with “natural” environmental stress factors and other anthropogenic global stressors including climate change and ocean acidification. This is especially important when organisms are brought to the limits of their ecological niche and will determine the “losers” and “winners” in our near future marine ecosystems.