Climate change could drive coastal food webs to collapse

Coastal marine food webs could be in danger of collapse as a result of rising carbon dioxide levels, according to our new research. The study shows that although species such as algae will receive a boost, the positive effects are likely to be cancelled out by the increased stress to species further up the food chain such as predatory fish.

A tank can give a good idea of what will happen out in the wild. 

Food webs are essentially networks of species that interact with each other. The connection between them can stabilise systems, for instance by preventing particular species from becoming too common, thereby encouraging the presence of a wide range of species.

These pathways can be quite stable, but they are vulnerable to ocean warming and acidification. Such food webs are therefore sensitive to changing climates, through potential changes both to plant growth (bottom-up effects) and to predator abundance and behaviour (top-down effects).

Because of the sheer complexity of species interactions within these food webs, we struggle to understand what future food webs might look like and how humans will be affected through changes in the services provided by the ocean, such as food, materials and energy.

Read the piece on The Conversation -“Climate change could drive coastal food webs to collapse.”

Arctic drilling collapse good news for World Oceans Day

It’s often hard to find good news when it comes to the world’s oceans. Overfishing, coral bleaching, dead zones, acidification, pollution, oil spills, melting sea ice, sea level rise, the odd Cold War-era Russian rocket crashing into Baffin Bay with some leftover toxic fuel in the tank: There are as many marine bad news stories as there used to be fish in the overfished sea.

So on World Oceans Day a bit of positive news is a breath of fresh air — or gill-full of clean water.

Repsol, a Spanish oil company which owned a significant portion of the drilling leases for Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, abandoned 55 of them last week and plans to drop the remaining 38 next year.

“Repsol is in the process of relinquishing its Chukchi Sea acreage position offshore Alaska,” Repsol spokeswoman Jan Sieving said in a statement.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Last Oil Company Pulls Out Of Arctic Offshore Drilling Efforts In Chukchi Sea.”

We need to 'think bigger' to save our great wonder



Lissa Schindler -
 we need to
"think bigger"

Government’s need to “think bigger” if they are to protect on one of the world’s great wonders from climate change.

Acidification of the world’s oceans by carbon dioxide threatens Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but little, or nothing is being done.

A story published today in the Melbourne Age headed: “Survey finds Great Barrier Reef coral losing strength” points the inadequate governmental response.

“Scientists surveying a reef flat just south of the resort island, off Cooktown, have measured a near 40 per cent decline in deposition of the vital building block for healthy coral, calcium carbonate”, the story says.

It adds, “However, the risk is not dealt with in the federal and Queensland governments' draft Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability plan, which refers to unspecified action to "maximise the reef's resilience to the current and future effects of climate change.

“The Australian Marine Conservation Society's Lissa Schindler said: "The Reef 2050 plan doesn't really do anything to engage on climate change. It needs to think bigger."