Americans rely on ocean ecosystems for food, jobs, recreation, energy, and other vital services. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels change ocean conditions through three main factors: warming seas, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation. These factors are transforming ocean ecosystems, and these transformations are already impacting the U.S. economy and coastal communities, cultures, and businesses.
While climate-driven ecosystem changes are pervasive in the ocean, the most apparent impacts are occurring in tropical and polar ecosystems, where ocean warming is causing the loss of two vulnerable habitats: coral reef and sea ice ecosystems. The extent of sea ice in the Arctic is decreasing, which represents a direct loss of important habitat for animals like polar bears and ringed seals that use it for hunting, shelter, migration, and reproduction, causing their abundances to decline. Warming has led to mass bleaching and/or outbreaks of coral diseases off the coastlines of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, Hawai‘i, and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands that threaten reef ecosystems and the people who depend on them. The loss of the recreational benefits alone from coral reefs in the United States is expected to reach $140 billion (discounted at 3% in 2015 dollars) by 2100. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions could reduce these cumulative losses by as much as $5.4 billion but will not avoid many ecological and economic impacts.
Ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation are leading to changes in productivity, recruitment, survivorship, and, in some cases, active movements of species to track their preferred temperature conditions, with most moving northward or into deeper water with warming oceans. These changes are impacting the distribution and availability of many commercially and recreationally valuable fish and invertebrates. The effects of ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation on marine species will interact with fishery management decisions, from seasonal and spatial closures to annual quota setting, allocations, and fish stock rebuilding plans. Accounting for these factors is the cornerstone of climate-ready fishery management. Even without directly accounting for climate effects, precautionary fishery management and better incentives can increase economic benefits and improve resilience.
Oceans and Marine Resources: Key Messages
- Ocean Ecosystems
The Nation’s valuable ocean ecosystems are being disrupted by increasing global temperatures through the loss of iconic and highly valued habitats and changes in species composition and food web structure. Ecosystem disruption will intensify as ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and other aspects of climate change increase. In the absence of significant reductions in carbon emissions, transformative impacts on ocean ecosystems cannot be avoided.
- Marine Fisheries
Marine fisheries and fishing communities are at high risk from climate-driven changes in the distribution, timing, and productivity of fishery-related species. Ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation are projected to increase these changes in fishery-related species, reduce catches in some areas, and challenge effective management of marine fisheries and protected species. Fisheries management that incorporates climate knowledge can help reduce impacts, promote resilience, and increase the value of marine resources in the face of changing ocean conditions.
- Extreme Events
Marine ecosystems and the coastal communities that depend on them are at risk of significant impacts from extreme events with combinations of very high temperatures, very low oxygen levels, or very acidified conditions. These unusual events are projected to become more common and more severe in the future, and they expose vulnerabilities that can motivate change, including technological innovations to detect, forecast, and mitigate adverse conditions.
The “Oceans and Marine Resources” publication is available as a downloadable PDF at Link to Source…
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