Interactions of Marine Pollution and Pelagic Communities in UK coastal habitats.

The dynamic interplay between water quality and the pelagic community is pivotal to understanding aquatic ecosystems' health and functionality. Water quality, encompassing parameters such as nutrient concentrations, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and other pollutants can profoundly influence the composition, diversity, and behaviour of pelagic organisms. In turn, the activities and population dynamics of these organisms can significantly impact water quality through processes including nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and the biogeochemical transformation of elements.  New sampling and imagery technology to measure plankton communities has helped further our understanding of the complex changes that are occurring in impacted coastal systems and we present work that improves our understanding of the relationships between water quality and the pelagic community in UK waters. We demonstrate how water quality imbalances can lead to shifts in community structure; changes in key phytoplankton species during eutrophic conditions leading to changes in trophic structures that can impact on zooplankton and fisheries. We report how pelagic organisms, from microscopic phytoplankton to larger zooplankton are influenced by the water quality and climatic changes. Understanding these interactions is crucial for managing our coastal systems, continuing to accurately predict ecosystem responses to environmental changes, and prioritising management measures that mitigate the impacts of human activities in our and marine systems.