The direct effect of warming on the ability of the water to hold Oxygen levels are declining faster in coastal oceans than in oxygen (also known as “solubility”) is responsible for over half the open ocean. [...] The largest declines in the open ocean have of the observed oxygen loss in the upper 1,000 meters of the been observed in the tropical and north Pacific Ocean, the ocean, and for ~15 per cent of the total oxygen loss across Arctic, the Southern Ocean, and the South Atlantic Ocean. [...] potential drivers of one of the largest extinction events in history, which occurred 252 million years ago during the Permian-Triassic and led to the extinction of 90 per cent of marine species. [...] Oxygen loss in the ocean could therefore lead to global nutrient loss and thus lower primary productivity, which could weaken the “biological pump” that takes CO2 at the ocean surface and stores it deep in the ocean. [...] Oxygen declines and the shoaling of the hypoxic Biology and Ecology, 311:1, 147-156.
- Pages
- 7
- Published in
- Australia
Table of Contents
- Summary 2
- Key points 2
- Introduction 3
- Declining ocean oxygen 3
- Climate change and nutrients 3
- The global oceans are currently losing oxygen due to global warming. 3
- What level of oxygen can animals live with underwater 4
- Impacts of deoxygenation on fish 4
- Impacts on fisheries 4
- Mass wildlife mortalities 4
- Emissions of greenhouse and toxic gases 5
- Future projections 5
- Current ocean deoxygenation due to global warming will persist for centuries. 5
- Conclusion 6
- Oxygen loss can only be prevented if fossil fuel use is rapidly reduced to zero. 6
- References 7
