We know a lot about the potential negative effects of ocean acidification on marine creatures. But might some species actually benefit? The answer is yes, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Early signs of bleaching coral in Kaheohe Bay Hawaii, August 2015.
XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Underwater Earth
Many corals can’t make it through the bleaching events caused by warming ocean waters. But some can – and scientists are trying to learn more about the sources of their resilience.
Coral reefs are vulnerable to both rising temperatures and acidifying oceans.
Coral image from www.shutterstock.com
Over the past five years we’ve seen a significant increase in research on ocean acidification and warming seas, and their effect on marine life. Overall, unfortunately, the news is not good.
Gamba Grass is altering fire regimes in the Top End, threatening human life and property, natural assets including Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, and compromising savanna burning programs.
Samantha Setterfield
One of the Australian government’s new research priorities is “environmental change”. But can be hard to know how to tackle such huge and interlinked issues as climate change and species extinctions.
Time to get cracking: a Canadian research vessel in the Arctic.
John F. Williams/Office of Naval Research
A melting Arctic means new areas will be open to commercial fishing but scientists – and bordering countries – say they need time to study the ecological and economic risks.
Icy waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula.
Kathryn Smith
Hundreds of meters below the surface of the freezing ocean surrounding Antarctica, the seafloor is teeming with life. The animals living there have no idea that an army is on the brink of invading their tranquil environment.
The tropical orange blotch surgeon fish has been moving south into New South Wales.
Graham Edgar / Reef Life Survey
As warmer seas move further south, tropical wildlife is going with them, giving us a dramatic insight into how global warming is changing our oceans.
Acehnese fishers are among the quarter of the world’s population who live on the coast, and for whom climate-driven changes to the oceans would make life much harder.
Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA/AAP Image
Failing to stick to the world’s agreed global warming limit of 2C won’t just affect the atmosphere - it will play havoc with the oceans too, potentially ruining ecosystems on which much of humanity depends.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most magnificent wonders of our world.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
With the United Nations set to decide on whether to list the Great Barrier Reef as officially in danger, we look at the various threats to the reef’s survival, starting with the biggie… climate change.
Mass extinction, good news for this guy.
Esparta Palma/flickr
Regions that depend on shellfish heavily for their economy and with limited information exchange will be hit hardest by ocean acidification.
Phytoplankton are responsible for half the world’s productivity. Here, a phytoplankton bloom in the northern Pacific.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr
You may not have heard of them or given them much thought, but phytoplankton — the microscopic plants that grow throughout the world’s oceans — are the foundation of oceanic food webs. Although tiny, they…
Flying over Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
Kiyo/Flickr
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, and a draft government plan to ensure its survival does not go far enough. A number of submissions including those from the Australian Academy of Science and Environmental…
A great butterfly fish enjoys the reef view off Waialae, Hawaii.
Steve Palumbi
Reef historian Iain McCalman, in Sydney, and reef scientist Stephen Palumbi, in California, are monitoring reef degradation from opposite sides of the planet. They compared notes. Iain McCalman: A recent…
A dead coral reef in the Caribbean. Coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to climate change and ocean acidification.
superqq/Flickr
Scientists are coming to the conclusion that we are on the brink of a mass extinction — the sixth known in the history of the Earth, and the latest since an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs 65 million…
We need to play our cards right if Australia’s marine environments are to keep us afloat.
Saspotato/Flickr
In many ways, Australia is defined by the oceans surrounding us. We have the world’s third largest ocean territory, most of our trade travels by sea, and we have vast offshore resources.
Rousing the Kraken: climate change could make life in the ocean much harder.
By Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy/Wikimedia Commons
Scientists are meeting this week in Yokohama, Japan, to finalise and approve the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II – the part of the IPCC process that…
Now you see me… Ocean acidification is making things blurry for fish.
Flickr/Mr. T in DC
Increasing carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans could hamper fishes’ eyesight, slowing their reaction times and leaving them vulnerable to predators or unable to hunt, new research has shown. Experts say…