According to a new study, approximately 70% of the world’s oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen by 2080 as a consequence of climate change. This has the potential to impact marine ecosystems all around the world.
The study, which was recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, is the first to use climate models to predict how and when deoxygenation will occur throughout the world’s oceans outside of its natural variability.
According to the findings, significant and potentially irreversible deoxygenation of the ocean’s middle depths began occurring last year. The models predict that deoxygenation will begin affecting all zones of the ocean by 2080.
According to the study’s models, mid-ocean depths are already losing oxygen at unnatural rates. Globally, the ocean’s middle depth – known as the mesopelagic zone – is home to many of the world’s commercially fished species. This makes these new findings a potential harbinger of economic hardship, seafood shortages, and environmental disruption.
Just like land animals, aquatic animals need oxygen to breathe. As climate change warms the oceans, the water holds less oxygen and is more buoyant than cooler water. This leads to less mixing of oxygenated water near the surface with deeper waters, which naturally contain less oxygen. Warmer water also raises oxygen demand among living organisms, resulting in less availability for marine life.
The researchers also found that oceans closer to both the North Pole and the South Pole are particularly vulnerable to deoxygenation. While they are not yet sure why, accelerated climate warming could be the culprit.
These findings should add new urgency to climate change mitigation efforts.
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Climate change has likely begun to suffocate the world’s fisheries
Photo, posted January 28, 2019, courtesy of Joseph Gage via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
