Climate Change Affects Marine Biodiversity
The remarkable diversity of life in the ocean has evolved to fill habitats and niches created by its physical and chemical properties. Anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases leads to changes in these properties, in response to oceanic absorption of heat and CO2, respectively.
Shifts in marine life and the services it provides are associated with these changes in oceanography. These shifts may cross irreversible thresholds and become permanent. Changes are further amplified by the synergistic nature of greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities (e.g. agriculture, fishing, and coastal development) that weaken ecosystem resiliency, and threaten the survival of marine organisms (Brierley & Kingsford 2009).
