Major impacts of climate change on deep-sea benthic ecosystems
Creators
- Andrew K. Sweetman1
- Andrew R. Thurber2
- Craig R. Smith3
- Lisa A. Levin4
- Camilo Mora5
- Chih-Lin Wei6
- Andrew J. Gooday7
- Daniel O. B. Jones7
- Michael Rex8
- Moriaki Yasuhara9
- Jeroen Ingels10
- Henry A. Ruhl7
- Christina A. Frieder11
- Roberto Danovaro12
- Laura Würzberg13
- Amy Baco14
- Benjamin M. Grupe15
- Alexis Pasulka16
- Kirstin S. Meyer17
- Katherine M. Dunlop1
- Lea-Anne Henry18
- J. Murray Roberts18
- 1. The Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Science and Technology, Institute of Life and Earth Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
- 2. College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Department of Microbiology, College of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, US
- 3. Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, US
- 4. Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation and Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, US
- 5. Department of Geography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, US
- 6. Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, TW
- 7. National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton Southampton, UK
- 8. University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, US
- 9. School of Biological Sciences and Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, CN
- 10. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
- 11. Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation and Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, US/Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, US
- 12. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, IT/Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, IT
- 13. University of Hamburg, Biocentre Grindel and Zoological Museum, Hamburg, DE
- 14. Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, US
- 15. Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation and Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, US/Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney BC, CA
- 16. Division of Geological and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, US
- 17. Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Charleston OR, US/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, US
- 18. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Description
The deep sea encompasses the largest ecosystems on Earth. Although poorly known, deep seafloor ecosystems provide services that are vitally important to the entire ocean and biosphere. Rising atmospheric greenhouse gases are bringing about significant changes in the environmental properties of the ocean realm in terms of water column oxygenation, temperature, pH and food supply, with concomitant impacts on deep-sea ecosystems. Projections suggest that abyssal (3000–6000 m) ocean temperatures could increase by 1°C over the next 84 years, while abyssal seafloor habitats under areas of deep-water formation may experience reductions in water column oxygen concentrations by as much as 0.03 mL L–1 by 2100. Bathyal depths (200–3000 m) worldwide will undergo the most significant reductions in pH in all oceans by the year 2100 (0.29 to 0.37 pH units). O2 concentrations will also decline in the bathyal NE Pacific and Southern Oceans, with losses up to 3.7% or more, especially at intermediate depths. Another important environmental parameter, the flux of particulate organic matter to the seafloor, is likely to decline significantly in most oceans, most notably in the abyssal and bathyal Indian Ocean where it is predicted to decrease by 40–55% by the end of the century. Unfortunately, how these major changes will affect deep-seafloor ecosystems is, in some cases, very poorly understood. In this paper, we provide a detailed overview of the impacts of these changing environmental parameters on deep-seafloor ecosystems that will most likely be seen by 2100 in continental margin, abyssal and polar settings. We also consider how these changes may combine with other anthropogenic stressors (e.g., fishing, mineral mining, oil and gas extraction) to further impact deep-seafloor ecosystems and discuss the possible societal implications.
Notes
Files
Sweetman et al.pdf
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Additional details
Funding
- MERCES – Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas 689518
- European Commission
- ATLAS – A Trans-AtLantic Assessment and deep-water ecosystem-based Spatial management plan for Europe 678760
- European Commission
- MIDAS – Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource exploitation 603418
- European Commission