Climate change implications on the basis of marine food webs

Climate change driven alterations at lower trophic levels cascade further to higher trophic levels in marine food webs through changes in energy transfer efficiency (Relva et al 2023). The occurrence of zooplankton in all aquatic habitats, their high abundance in the meiobenthos, importance as prey in the food web and the fatty acid bioconversion capacity makes them an important subject for current and future studies (Werbrouck et al., 2016). Benthic harpacticoid copepods are a very abundant meiofauna taxa, and also make up 70-90% of the mesozooplankton in pelagic ecosystems. The increasing temperatures will not only affect the physiology and fitness of marine organisms, but will thus change marine ecosystems, affecting the goods and services they provide. With this thesis, the aim is to observe the effects of climate change and crude oil spillage on the basis of marine food webs, trough the diatom Nitzschia sp., and the benthic harpacticoid copepod Platychelipus littoralis. To prevent serious consequences on the entire food web, and predict future scenarios, understanding their response to different environmental stressors is of utmost importance. As very little research has been done on benthic harpacticoids, extensive future research is needed to understand their response mechanisms to the changing environmental conditions.