Warmer world could kill sea wildlife by 2100
GLOBAL WARMING is set to wipe out “many if not most” of the animals living in protected parts of the world’s oceans by the end of the century, scientists predict.
Polar bears and penguins are among the species under greatest threat, even if carbon emission trends remain unchanged.
Current “business-as-usual” projections suggest that by 2100 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will be 2.8C warmer than they are today.
That is enough to make the conservation zones uninhabitable for many of the fish, mammals, birds and invertebrates now dwelling within them, say the researchers.
There are 8,236 MPAs around the world, covering four per cent of the total surface of the oceans.
They were set up to provide safe havens for wildlife and conserve endangered habitats by restricting human activities such as fishing, mining and tourism.
The new study published in the journal Nature Climate
Change suggests that without drastic action MPAs will be “devastated” by rapid global warming.
Lead scientist Professor John Bruno, from the University of North Carolina in the US, said: “With warming of this magnitude, we expect to lose many, if not most, animal species from Marine Protected Areas by the turn of the century.”
The scientists carried out simulations to model sea surface temperatures and oxygen concentrations in MPAs around the world, including those where fishing is banned. They found that even under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “business-as-usual” emissions scenario, MPAs were expected to warm by 0.034C per year.
This figure would mean that by the end of the century ocean temperatures in MPAs will have increased by an average of 2.8C, they said.