In the pink – thriving clusters of brachiopods anchored to intertidal rocks amongst mussels, serpulids and chitons in Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island, New Zealand ©Elizabeth M Harper
It has been predicted that brachiopods might be especially vulnerable to environmental change. But Emma Cross and Liz Harper from Cambridge Earth Sciences and other Cambridge colleagues from the British Antarctic Survey have found that a species of brachiopod, called Calloria inconspicua, has successfully combatted a significant level of warming and acidification in ocean waters over the last century and more.
A 120-year record of resilience to environmental change in brachiopods, Emma L Cross, Elizabeth M Harper & Lloyd S Peck is published in Global Change Biology.
