Journal ArticleDOI
Climate-driven trends in contemporary ocean productivity
Michael J. Behrenfeld,Robert T. O'Malley,David A. Siegel,Charles R. McClain,Jorge L. Sarmiento,Gene C. Feldman,Allen J. Milligan,Paul G. Falkowski,Ricardo M. Letelier,Emmanuel Boss +9 more
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TLDR
Global ocean NPP changes detected from space over the past decade are described, dominated by an initial increase in NPP of 1,930 teragrams of carbon a year, followed by a prolonged decrease averaging 190 Tg C yr-1.Abstract:
Contributing roughly half of the biosphere's net primary production (NPP), photosynthesis by oceanic phytoplankton is a vital link in the cycling of carbon between living and inorganic stocks. Each day, more than a hundred million tons of carbon in the form of CO2 are fixed into organic material by these ubiquitous, microscopic plants of the upper ocean, and each day a similar amount of organic carbon is transferred into marine ecosystems by sinking and grazing. The distribution of phytoplankton biomass and NPP is defined by the availability of light and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate, iron). These growth-limiting factors are in turn regulated by physical processes of ocean circulation, mixed-layer dynamics, upwelling, atmospheric dust deposition, and the solar cycle. Satellite measurements of ocean colour provide a means of quantifying ocean productivity on a global scale and linking its variability to environmental factors. Here we describe global ocean NPP changes detected from space over the past decade. The period is dominated by an initial increase in NPP of 1,930 teragrams of carbon a year (Tg C yr(-1)), followed by a prolonged decrease averaging 190 Tg C yr(-1). These trends are driven by changes occurring in the expansive stratified low-latitude oceans and are tightly coupled to coincident climate variability. This link between the physical environment and ocean biology functions through changes in upper-ocean temperature and stratification, which influence the availability of nutrients for phytoplankton growth. The observed reductions in ocean productivity during the recent post-1999 warming period provide insight on how future climate change can alter marine food webs.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Ocean Acidification: The Other CO 2 Problem
TL;DR: The potential for marine organisms to adapt to increasing CO2 and broader implications for ocean ecosystems are not well known; both are high priorities for future research as mentioned in this paper, and both are only imperfect analogs to current conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
The impact of climate change on the world's marine ecosystems.
TL;DR: Although there is considerable uncertainty about the spatial and temporal details, climate change is clearly and fundamentally altering ocean ecosystems and will continue to create enormous challenges and costs for societies worldwide, particularly those in developing countries.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate Change Impacts on Marine Ecosystems
Scott C. Doney,Mary Ruckelshaus,J. Emmett Duffy,James P. Barry,Francis Chan,Chad A. English,Heather M. Galindo,Jacqueline M. Grebmeier,Anne B. Hollowed,Nancy Knowlton,Jeffrey J. Polovina,Nancy N. Rabalais,William J. Sydeman,Lynne D. Talley +13 more
TL;DR: In marine ecosystems, rising atmospheric CO2 and climate change are associated with concurrent shifts in temperature, circulation, stratification, nutrient input, oxygen content, and ocean acidification, with potentially wide-ranging biological effects.
Journal ArticleDOI
Multiple stressors of ocean ecosystems in the 21st century: projections with CMIP5 models
Laurent Bopp,Laure Resplandy,James C. Orr,Scott C. Doney,John P. Dunne,Marion Gehlen,Paul R. Halloran,Christoph Heinze,Christoph Heinze,Tatiana Ilyina,Roland Séférian,Jerry Tjiputra,Jerry Tjiputra,Marcello Vichi +13 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the most recent simulations performed in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 to assess how these stressors may evolve over the course of the 21st century.
Journal ArticleDOI
Vulnerability of national economies to the impacts of climate change on fisheries
Edward H. Allison,Edward H. Allison,Allison L. Perry,Allison L. Perry,Marie-Caroline Badjeck,Marie-Caroline Badjeck,W. Neil Adger,Katrina Brown,Ashley S. Halls,Graham M. Pilling,John D. Reynolds,Neil L. Andrew,Nicholas K. Dulvy,Nicholas K. Dulvy +13 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the vulnerability of 132 national economies to potential climate change impacts on their capture fisheries using an indicator-based approach and found that countries in Central and Western Africa (e.g. Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, and Uganda), Peru and Colombia in north-western South America, and four tropical Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen) were identified as most vulnerable.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Primary Production of the Biosphere: Integrating Terrestrial and Oceanic Components
TL;DR: Integrating conceptually similar models of the growth of marine and terrestrial primary producers yielded an estimated global net primary production of 104.9 petagrams of carbon per year, with roughly equal contributions from land and oceans.
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Photosynthetic rates derived from satellite‐based chlorophyll concentration
TL;DR: In this paper, a light-dependent, depth-resolved model for carbon fixation (VGPM) was developed to understand the critical variables required for accurate assessment of daily depth-integrated phytoplankton carbon fixation from measurements of sea surface pigment concentrations (Csat)(Csat).
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Warming of the World Ocean
TL;DR: In this article, the authors quantify the interannual-to-decadal variability of the heat content (mean temperature) of the world ocean from the surface through 3000-meter depth for the period 1948 to 1998, showing that the global volume mean temperature increase for the 0- to 300-meter layer was 0.31°C, corresponding to an increase in heat content for this layer of ∼10 23 joules between the mid-1950s and mid-1990s.
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From anchovies to sardines and back: multidecadal change in the Pacific Ocean.
TL;DR: In the Pacific Ocean, air and ocean temperatures, atmospheric carbon dioxide, landings of anchovies and sardines, and the productivity of coastal and open ocean ecosystems have varied over periods of about 50 years.
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Carbon-based ocean productivity and phytoplankton physiology from space
TL;DR: Compared to an earlier chlorophyll-based approach, carbonbased values are considerably higher in tropical oceans, show greater seasonality at middle and high latitudes, and illustrate important differences in the formation and demise of regional algal blooms.