Climate Change Smothering Marine Life
- Betty Laseter
- May 4, 2016
- 1 min read
A new study has found that oceans around the globe are gasping for breath, thanks to climate change. These human-driven changes in the environment are not only making oceans’ waters warm, but also affecting life of sea creatures.
Due to decrease in oxygen in some regions of worlds’ oceans, marine life is struggling to breath, as per the study published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. By 2030, loss of oxygen in worlds’ ocean will be evident, it added.
Loss of oxygen in oceans is a serious issue as it is linked to marine life, said Matthew Long, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and lead author of the study. If this loss continues, it will become a major threat for sea creatures, Long added.
“Since oxygen concentrations in the ocean naturally vary depending on variations in winds and temperature at the surface, it’s been challenging to attribute any deoxygenation to climate change. This study tells when we can expect the impact from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability”, said Long in a statement.
As per the study, some ocean regions have started experiencing impacts of the decrease in dissolved oxygen. In regions like the southern Indian Ocean and some portion of tropical Pacific and Atlantic basins, the decrease is evident, it stated.
USFWS - Pacific Region
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