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Economic growth spurring rise in CO2 levels,weakening natural carbon sinkLand, ocean’s ability to absorb carbon weakening confirmedIs the ocean carbon sink sinking?1 November 2007The past few weeks and years have seen a bushel of papers finding that the natural world, in particular perhaps the ocean, is getting fed up with absorbing our CO2. There are uncertainties and caveats associated with each study, but taken as a whole, they provide convincing evidence that the hypothesized carbon cycle positive feedback has begun.
Oceans’ uptake of global CO2 emissions has halved in the last decade ·
Oceans are 'soaking up less CO2'
The amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world's oceans has reduced, scientists have said. Results of their 10-year study in the North Atlantic show CO2 uptake halved between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005. Scientists believe global warming might get worse if the oceans soak up less of the greenhouse gas.
Acid Buildup in Oceans Threatens Food Chain
Oceans' growing acidity alarms scientistsForget about sea levels rising as glaciers and polar ice melt, and increasing water temperatures affecting global weather patterns. As the oceans absorb more and more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, they're gradually becoming more acidic. And some scientists fear that the change may be irreversible. At risk are sea creatures up and down the food chain, from the tiniest phytoplankton and zooplankton to whales, from squid to salmon to crabs, coral, oysters and clams.
http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/245
Ocean Dead Zones Growing; May Be Linked to WarmingJames Owen May 1, 2008
The world's hypoxic zones—swaths of ocean too oxygen-deprived to support fish and other marine organisms—are rapidly expanding as sea temperatures rise, a new study suggests. Is it true that plankton produce much of our oxygen?
The site for Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute, the largest independent oceanographic institution in the world,
says "...phytoplankton produce nearly half of the Earth's oxygen
"I'd go with them,
oceanography is their only
business, they should know if anybody does. So...
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Within this community, photosynthetic cells (the phytoplankton) produce nearly half of the Earth’s oxygen and nearly all of the food for planktonic animals (zooplankton), which, in turn, feed higher trophic levels such as fish. The species composition of the plankton community affects higher trophic levels (including the fish available for human consumption)…..
Source of Half Earth's Oxygen Gets Little CreditJohn Roach
Fish, whales, dolphins, crabs, seabirds, and just about
everything else
So if Gobal Warming is killing off the phytoplankton is it destroying one of our main sources of oxygen?
Global warming sounding death knell for coral reefs
Global Warming Is Destroying Coral Reefs, Major Study WarnsScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2007) — The largest living structures on Earth and the millions of livelihoods which depend upon them are at risk, the most definitive review yet of the impact of rising carbon emissions on coral reefs has concluded.
Coral reef bleaching and global climate change: Can corals survive the next century?
Michael P. Lesser* Department of Zoology and Center for Marine Biology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 Coral reef ecosystems are threatened on a worldwide basis, with overfishing, diseases, eutrophication, hurricanes, overpopulation, and global climate change all contributing to recent declines in reef-forming corals or phase shifts in community structure on time scales not observed previously.
Scientists warn of a world without coral
December 13, 2007 By Alison Auld, THE CANADIAN PRESS HALIFAX - Coral reefs around the globe could be wiped off the map if nothing is done to stem the effects of climate change that are making it difficult for the fragile organisms to reproduce, according to a bleak study published Thursday.
Fact: Coral reef supports ¼ of sea life on earth
Oxygen-starved oceans rapidly dying
BY ROSSLYN BEEBY, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTER 25/06/2008 7:09:00 AM
The world's coastal oceans are in crisis, with oxygen-starved ''dead zones'' increasing by a third in just two years as global temperatures increase with climate change, according to the International Whaling Commission's latest scientific report. Dead zones, caused by over-enrichment of waters by nutrients from run-off, sewerage and warming waters, represent ''the worst-case scenario for coastal biodiversity'' and are the ''severest form'' of ocean habitat degradation, the report says. The number of ocean dead zones has grown from 44 areas reported in 1995 to more than 400, with some of the worst oxygen-starved areas extending over 22,000sqkm.
Study Finds Humans Effect on Oceans Comprehensive
By Juliet Eilperin
Human activities are affecting every square mile of the world's oceans, according to a study by a team of American, British and Canadian researchers who mapped the severity of the effects from pole to pole. The analysis of 17 global data sets, led by Benjamin S. Halpern of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, Calif., details how humans are reshaping the seas through overfishing, air and water pollution, commercial shipping and other activities. The study, published online yesterday by the journal Science, examines those effects on nearly two dozen marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and continental shelves. "For the first time we can see where some of the most threatened marine ecosystems are and what might be degrading them," Elizabeth Selig, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Some marine ecosystems are under acute pressure, the scientists concluded, including sea mounts, mangrove swamps, sea grass and coral reefs. Almost half of all coral reefs, they wrote, "experience medium high to very high impact" from humans. Overall, rising ocean temperatures represent the biggest threat to marine ecosystems.
Our oceans are under attack, And approaching a point of no return
We are we systematically destroying the ocean Another excellent video
National Geographic's Video
Looking for an island paradise? Then book a flight soon. They could be vanishing under the rising tides of global warming.
Ocean Areas Warming Twice as Much than Reported Warming trends rise in large ocean areas: study
Reuters News Service, April 9, 2008 By Grant McCool HANOI (Reuters) -Warming trends in a third of the world's large ocean regions are two to four times greater than previously reported averages, increasing the risk to marine life and fisheries, a U.N.-backed environmental study said. Overfishing, coastal pollution and degradation of water quality were common in all 64 large marine ecosystems studied by scientists who contributed to the U.N. Environmental Program report presented at an international conference on oceans, coasts and islands in Vietnam this week. "These marine ecosystems are under great stress and that stress is increasing because of climate change, by global warming," co-author Ken Sherman of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an interview.
World fisheries face collapse within decades -UN
Fri 22 Feb 2008, 14:03 GMT
MONACO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A deadly combination of climate change, over-fishing and pollution could cause the collapse of commercial fish stocks worldwide within decades, said Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. "You overlap all of this and you see you're potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of world fisheries," Steiner told reporters on Friday on the fringes of a climate conference involving more than 150 nations and 100 environment ministers. Some 2.6 billion people worldwide depend on fish for protein, said a UNEP report "In Dead Water" published on Friday. Climate change has compounded previous problems such as over-fishing, as rising temperatures kill coral reefs, threaten tuna spawning grounds, and shift ocean currents and with them the plankton and small fish which underpin ocean food chains. "The question is not whether we should stop fishing but to address climate change, which is creating a degree of impact we've not seen before," said lead author of the UNEP report, Christian Nellemann. "We are getting more and more alarming signals of dramatic changes in the oceans. The recovery from the changes we're making will probably take a million years."
Rising temperatures have caused oxygen-starved swaths of ocean to expand over the last half-century -- a disturbing trend that, if it continues, could wreak havoc on global fisheries. Led by University of Kiel oceanographer Lothar Stramma, researchers analyzed 50 years of ocean oxygen data. The findings, published today in Science, dovetail with predictions made by earlier climate models. Two mechanisms are responsible for the drop. As water warms, it holds less oxygen. More significantly, Earth's oceans are oxygenated in large part by cold waters that sink at high latitudes, then ride deep-sea currents to the equator. But water becomes buoyant as it warms: it no longer sinks so readily into this cycle. "The surface warmer getting warmer means it's harder for oxygen to mix down, to the deeper parts, and that's the dominant effect," said study co-author and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher Greg Johnson.
in Oceans Due to Global Warming By Jonathan Leake Sunday 18 May 2008
Marine dead zones, where fish and other sea life can suffocate from lack of oxygen, are spreading across the world's tropical oceans, a study has warned. Researchers found that the warming of sea water through climate change is reducing its ability to carry dissolved oxygen, potentially turning swathes of the world's oceans into marine graveyards. The study, by scientists from some of the world's most prestigious marine research institutes, warns that if global temperatures keep rising there could be "dramatic consequences" for marine life and for humans in communities that depend on the sea for a living.
By David Shukman
They report that small plastic pellets called "mermaids' tears", which are the result of industry and domestic waste, have spread across the world's seas. The scientists had previously found the debris on UK beaches and in European waters; now they have replicated the finding on four continents. Warning on plastic's toxic threat
Plastic waste in the oceans poses a potentially devastating long-term toxic threat to the food chain, according to marine scientists. Studies suggest billions of microscopic plastic fragments drifting underwater are concentrating pollutants like DDT.
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