Other Natural Resources: Oceans
Marine ecosystems generally evade casual inspection, but marine biologists show that recent changes are immense and potentially catastrophic. More ocean links in the Climate pages.
Brave New Ocean: Online presentation (44 min) by Dr. Jeremy Jackson summarizing the evidence that essentially all of the oceans' major predators and ecosystems are facing long odds for survival as a result of human impacts. Sound quality not so great, but certainly worth watching.
The Impacts of
Ocean Acidification
on Marine Biodiversity: Chilling scientific synthesis of global research. "Carbonate ion concentrations are now lower than at
any other time during the last 800,000 years. Furthermore, given current emission rates, it is predicted
that the surface waters of the highly productive Arctic Ocean will become under-saturated with respect
to essential carbonate minerals by the year 2032, and the Southern Ocean by 2050 with disruptions to
large components of the marine food web."
Unsustainable open-ocean fishing: Ward & Myers' 2005 article documents precipitous drops in abundance and size of large marine species since 1950, and identifies commercial fishing as the probable cause (PDF file).
The Natural World Vanishes: How Species Cease to Matter: John Waldman's Apr 2010 article in Yale's Environment360 about human-caused destruction of the marine food web.
Phytoplankton decline: Brief summary of recent research, from Nature (July 2010).
Callum Roberts, The Unnatural History of the Sea (2007): Scholarly yet very readable history of fisheries since about the 10th century CE, with plenty of excellent evidence for human impacts. The sea may supply <1% of human calories, but the collapse of its ecosystem is a clear indicator of the planet's ill health. Recommended.
Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level: Chapter 5 from Working Group 1 (Scientific Basis) in the 4th IPCC Assessment, 2007 (PDF file).
Ocean Acidification: Long, detailed report from the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (in English; 2006).
Dead Zones: A short (4-min) movie describing dead zones (environmental hypoxia) and recent research off Oregon and Washington that links the dead zone there to climae change.
Plastic soup in the Atlantic: Another gigantic garbage patch in the world ocean (Apr 2010).
Iron fertilization goes awry: Article summarizing an unsuccessful attempt to pull CO2 from the atmosphere by dumping iron in the ocean to stimulate algae growth. Didn't work out the way the experts predicted.