Per unit of area, they sequester carbon faster and far more efficiently than terrestrial forests. When these ecosystems are degraded, lost or converted, massive amounts of CO 2 — an estimated 0. The ecosystem services such as flood and storm protection that they provide are also lost. The impacts of ocean warming and acidification on coastal and marine species and ecosystems are already observable.
For example, the current amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere is already too high for coral reefs to thrive, putting at risk food provision, flood protection and other services corals provide. Moreover, increased GHG emissions exacerbate the impact of already existing stressors on coastal and marine environments from land-based activities e.
These cumulative impacts weaken the ability of the ocean and coasts to continue to perform critical ecosystem services. Local fishers, indigenous and other coastal communities, international business organisations and the tourism industry are already seeing the effects of climate change particularly in Small Island Developing States SIDS and many of the Least Developed Countries LDCs.
Weakened or even lost ecosystems increase human vulnerability in the face of climate change and undermine the ability of countries to implement climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures, including those provided for in Nationally Determined Contributions NDCs under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The sustainable management, conservation and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems are vital to support the continued provision of carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services on which people depend. Marine Protected Areas MPAs for example can protect ecologically and biologically significant marine habitats, including regulating human activities to prevent environmental degradation. Protection and restoration of coastal ecosystems is also needed. Policies to prevent the conversion of these ecosystems to other land uses, for example regulating coastal development, can ensure their protection.
Countries can also develop policies and ensure the implementation of sustainable practices in all industries that impact the ocean and coasts, including fisheries and the tourism industry.
Support for scientific research is needed. This will ensure the continued monitoring and analyses of the impacts of climate change, with the knowledge gained used to design and implement adequate and appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Globally ambitious efforts are also needed to reduce the use of fossil fuels, increase the use of renewable energy systems and enhance energy efficiency. Issues Briefs related to nature conservation and sustainable development often have societal impacts beyond conservation.
IUCN Oceans and Climate Change brochure. This can have significant socio-economic and health effects in some regions of the world. Warming ocean temperatures are linked to the increase and spread of diseases in marine species.
Humans risk direct transmission of these diseases when consuming marine species, or from infections of wounds exposed in marine environments. This will help prevent the massive and irreversible impacts of growing temperatures on ocean ecosystems and their services.
Protecting marine and coastal ecosystems Well-managed protected areas can help conserve and protect ecologically and biologically significant marine habitats. This will regulate human activities in these habitats and prevent environmental degradation. Restoring marine and coastal ecosystems Elements of ecosystems that have already experienced damage can be restored. This can include building artificial structures such as rock pools that act as surrogate habitats for organisms, or boosting the resilience of species to warmer temperatures through assisted breeding techniques.
Improving human adaptation Governments can introduce policies to keep fisheries production within sustainable limits, for example by setting precautionary catch limits and eliminating subsidies to prevent overfishing. Coastal setback zones which prohibit all or certain types of development along the shoreline can minimise the damage from coastal flooding and erosion. New monitoring tools can be developed to forecast and control marine disease outbreaks.
Strengthening scientific research Governments can increase investments in scientific research to measure and monitor ocean warming and its effects. This will provide more precise data on the scale, nature and impacts of ocean warming, making it possible to design and implement adequate and appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Issues Briefs related to nature conservation and sustainable development often have societal impacts beyond conservation. Laffoley, D. Explaining ocean warming: Causes, scale, effects and consequences.
Full report. Water is an enormously efficient heat-sink. Solar heat absorbed by bodies of water during the day, or in the summer, is released at night, or in winter. But the heat in the ocean is also circulating. Such sinking is also a principal mechanism by which the oceans store and transport heat and carbon dioxide. Together, temperature and salinity differences drive a global circulation within the ocean sometimes called the Global Conveyor Belt. The heat in the water is carried to higher latitudes by ocean currents where it is released into the atmosphere.
Water chilled by colder temperatures at high latitudes contracts thus gets more dense. In some regions where the water is also very salty, such as the far North Atlantic, the water becomes dense enough to sink to the bottom. Mixing in the deep ocean due to winds and tides brings the cold water back to the surface everywhere around the ocean. Some reaches the surface via the global ocean water circulation conveyor belt to complete the cycle.
During this circulation of cold and warm water, carbon dioxide is also transported. Cold water absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and some sinks deep into the ocean. When deep water comes to the surface in the tropics, it is warmed, and the carbon dioxide is released back to the atmosphere. Salinity can be as important as temperature in determining density of seawater in some regions such as the western tropical Pacific and the far North Atlantic.
Rain reduces the salinity, especially in regions of very heavy rain. Some tropical areas get 3, to 5, millimeters of rain each year. Evaporation increases salinity because as evaporation occurs, salt is left behind thus making surface water denser. Evaporation in the tropics averages 2, millimeters per year. This denser saltier water sinks into the ocean contributing to the global circulation patterns and mixing. Ocean salinity measurements have been few and infrequent, and in many places salinity has remained unmeasured.
Remotely sensed salinity measurements hold the promise of greatly improving our ocean models. This is the challenge of project Aquarius, a NASA mission scheduled to launch in , which will enable us to further refine our understanding of the ocean-climate connection. Life in the ocean consumes and releases large quantities of carbon dioxide. Across Earth's oceans, tiny marine plants called phytoplankton use chlorophyll to capture sunlight during photosynthesis and use the energy to produce sugars.
Phytoplankton are the basis of the ocean food web, and they play a significant role in Earth's climate, since they draw down carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, at the same rate as land plants. About half of the oxygen we breathe arises from photosynthesis in the ocean. Because of their role in the ocean's biological productivity and their impact on climate, scientists want to know how much phytoplankton the oceans contain, where they are located, how their distribution is changing with time, and how much photosynthesis they perform.
They gather this information by using satellites to observe chlorophyll as an indicator of the number, or biomass, of phytoplankton cells. If the ratio of blue to green is low for an area of the ocean surface, then there is more phytoplankton present. This relationship works over a very wide range of concentrations, from less than 0.
Learn More About This Image. Climate Variability The ocean is a significant influence on Earth's weather and climate. This diagram shows the relationship between physical and biological oceanography and climate variability.
Heat transport and ocean circulation are key factors between physical oceanography and climate variability. Biological oceanography impacts climate through the biological pump. Together, air-sea gas fluxes and penetrative solar radiation are feedbacks between physical and biological oceanography processes that ultimately influence climate.
This image taken on Jan. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth's oceans.
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