Advances in technology - such as microscopic imaging and molecular techniques - have the potential to transform our understanding of global ocean health, according to the authors of a new study.
However, they should not be employed at the expense of long-term plankton monitoring programmes, which continue to provide an essential role in tracking how our seas are shifting in the face of a changing global climate and are essential for informing routine assessments of marine biodiversity required by international law
Writing in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management, scientists say novel techniques do offer means of collecting and analysing select types of plankton data more efficiently than traditional methods.
They also have the potential to fill knowledge gaps and generate more complete pictures of plankton dynamics, factors which have led to them being proposed as possible alternatives to current monitoring programmes.
However, the authors say that the old and new methods come with different advantages and costs, while their uses and benefits - across marine management and scientific communities - can actually complement each other.
As such, they believe more effective ways should be found for old and new programmes to integrate with each other, combined with greater efforts to retain the specialist taxonomic skills needed to accurately assess plankton species and diversity.
The research was developed by some of Europe's leading experts in plankton science, working at universities and government organisations in the UK, France, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Many of them are directly involved in long-term monitoring programmes that have been running for more than six decades, and the development of new monitoring technologies, as well as advising on the management of our ocean and seas.
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