Fish will have to find new habitats or perish if global warming is left unchecked

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Contrasting futures for ocean and society from different anthropogenic CO₂ emissions scenarios

 

 

BACKGROUND

Although the ocean moderates anthropogenic climate change, this has great impacts on its fundamental physics and chemistry, with important consequences for ecosystems and people. Yet, despite the ocean’s critical role in regulating climate—and providing food security and livelihoods for millions of people—international climate negotiations have only minimally considered impacts on the ocean. Here, we evaluate changes to the ocean and its ecosystems, as well as to the goods and services they provide, under two contrasting CO₂ scenarios: the current high-emissions trajectory (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5, RCP8.5) and a stringent emissions scenario (RCP2.6) consistent with the Copenhagen Accord of keeping mean global temperature increase below 2°C in the 21st century. To do this, we draw on the consensus science in the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and papers published since the assessment.

 

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6243/aac4722

 

Discussion

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/uobc-fwh063015.php