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The impact of ocean warming on marine organisms

  • Review
  • Oceanology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution during the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, there has been rapidly increasing release of greenhouse gases, notably CO2, into the atmosphere. As a consequence of this atmospheric change, the Earth’s average surface temperature has increased by approximately 0.6 °C over the last 100 years. The rate of release of greenhouse gases continues to increase, and global surface temperature rose by approximately 0.2 °C per decade in the last 30 years, a rate that is greater than at any other time during the last 1,000 years. The wide-ranging effects of these increases in greenhouse gases and temperature on the biosphere are subject to intense scientific study. Much has been learned, but much more needs to be elucidated, if we are to predict how terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems will be affected by global change. This brief review focuses on the marine environment and offers a concise summary of some of the important advances in our knowledge about the impacts of global change, including physical and chemical changes of the ocean, as well as the impact of ocean warming on marine organisms. Our analysis also points out areas where critical new information is needed if we are to predict the future of marine ecosystems in a warming world with accuracy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41076076), the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB111604) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41276178 and 31101882).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Cui-Luan Yao

  2. Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, 93950, USA

    George N. Somero

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  1. Cui-Luan Yao
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Correspondence to Cui-Luan Yao.

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Yao, CL., Somero, G.N. The impact of ocean warming on marine organisms. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 468–479 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0113-0

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