NOC Into the Blue Podcast · National Oceanography Centre

The Hidden Influence Marine Life Has on Our Climate | Into the Blue Podcast

·21 min·1 clip

Marine life can influence climate in two ways: storing carbon or changing seawater chemistry.

Dr Zoe Jacobs opens with a simple question about how marine organisms might shape climate. Dr Adrian Martin answers by laying out the ocean's carbon role, noting that much of the carbon humans release ends up in the sea through physical and chemical processes rather than biology alone. He also brings a personal note to the discussion, explaining that he did not begin in ocean science. He trained as a mathematician, moved into theoretical cosmology, and even wrote a thesis that tried to predict the end of the universe before deciding to change course. That gives the conversation a grounded, human feel without losing the science. The talk then moves to the ocean's twilight zone, which he describes as pitch black and still full of unknowns. He points to the famous but mostly unseen sperm whale and giant squid encounter as one reminder of how much is still out of view. The exchange then shifts to the huge daily migration of organisms that rise toward the surface at night to feed and move back down again. That movement matters because the carbon they eat near the top of the ocean can be excreted at depth, effectively moving material toward the interior. Martin says this makes the process a potentially very efficient way to send carbon deeper into the ocean. The conversation does not stay with biology alone. It also asks what happens if the same migrating organisms become the target of a fishery. A study mentioned in the discussion suggested that these creatures may have been seriously underestimated in number. He notes that they may be among the most abundant vertebrates on Earth. That scale makes the management question feel a lot less niche. The pacing stays steady, with enough room for the science to breathe. Near the end, Martin explains that the team is still in its field work phase, with three projects running in the middle stage of the work. The longer-term aim is to bring those strands together and feed them into climate models that account more honestly for marine life. The result is a conversation that moves from shipboard research and deep-sea mystery to a practical modeling goal. It keeps circling back to the same point: the ocean's living systems are not a side note to climate, but part of the machinery itself.

As heard by us

A grounded look at ocean carbon, deep-sea life, and the climate questions that connect them.

Marine life is treated as part of the climate picture, not a side note. Dr Adrian Martin traces how carbon moves through the ocean and why fish, migration, and depth quickly become climate questions. The science comes through as steady rather than flashy, which suits the subject.

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Why you'd press play

You want climate science that starts with marine life and the carbon cycle.

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