Huge areas of the ocean are getting darker, in line with analysis primarily based on satellite tv for pc imaging. Marine ecosystems are ruled by faint mild modifications – from mass nightly migrations to coral spawning cycles – so what occurs when that mild begins to fade? Ian Pattern talks to Prof Tim Smyth from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory about why this darkening is occurring and the way life within the ‘photic zone’ – the sunlit higher layer that’s house to 90% of marine organisms – may very well be profoundly affected