Global Warming Will Affect Every Inch of Every Ocean by 2100, Study Says

It looks like global warming will leave no stone unturned. According to a new encompassing study, global warming will affect every single corner and inch of the ocean by 2100, sparing nobody.

"When you look at the world ocean, there are few places that will be free of changes; most will suffer the simultaneous effects of warming, acidification, and reductions in oxygen and productivity," said Camilo Mora, an assistant professor at the Department of Geography in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa).

"The consequences of these co-occurring changes are massive — everything from species survival, to abundance, to range size, to body size, to species richness, to ecosystem functioning are affected by changes in ocean biogeochemistry."

Previous studies have mostly only concentrated on specific changes the oceans will go through, such as temperature or pH increases. The new study is the first of its kind to take into account a myriad of other factors such as the impact the changes in the ocean will have on tourism or fishing. The international team of researchers looked at two scenarios: one where carbon dioxide concentrations reached 900 parts per million (ppm) by 2100, and one concentrations reached 550 ppm.

The study found that coral reefs, seagrass beds, and shallow soft-bottom benthic habitats will experience the most change, with the least happening to deep-sea floorbeds.

"Because many deep-sea ecosystems are so stable, even small changes in temperature, oxygen, and pH may lower the resilience of deep-sea communities.  This is a growing concern as humans extract more resources and create more disturbances in the deep ocean," said Lisa Levin, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego,

Oceans at higher latitudes are expected to improve somewhat, but scientists caution there are other factors, such as invasive species, that will mitigate any benefits.

You can read the full published study in the journal PLOS Biology.