Monday 14 December (Christmas Zoom Meeting): 'Algae, fish and climate change: the last 3.5 million years'. Speaker: Matt Sutton, DPhil student, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford. Phytoplankton form the base of ocean ecosystems. They play a vital role in the climate system, the composition of the atmosphere and, ultimately, the health of humanity. Anthropogenic climate change is predicted to cause substantial changes in phytoplankton abundance over the coming centuries. Using the sedimentary record of the deep sea, Matt will be quantifying changes in the abundance of phytoplankton and fish microfossils across the Plio-Pleistocene, with an emphasis on episodes of rapid environmental change.