Introduction: Empirical observations and climate models both indicate that global climate and ocean conditions have been changing over the last 100 years and will likely change more rapidly in the future. Major changes include ocean warming, acidification, and expansion of oxygen minimum zones (Brierley & Kingsford 009). Biological responses to these ocean changes have been observed in the marine biomes (Perry et al. 2005; Cheung et al. 2009). For instance, nearly two-thirds of exploited marine fishes in the North Sea shifted in mean latitude or depth or both over 25 years as sea temperature increased (Perry et al. 2005; Dulvy et al. 2008). Cheung et al. (2009) projected that climate change will lead to high rates of species invasion in high latitude regions and local extinction along the tropics. Marine climate change affects primary productivity, species distribution, and community and food-web structure, which have direct and indirect impacts on distribution and productivity of marine organisms (Cheung et al. 2010). These have direct and indirect implications for the goods and services provided by the marine ecosystems to human societies (Sumaila and Cheung 2010). Thus, there is a need to develop policy that would, at least, increase the resilience of marine ecosystem to such changes.
Full report available: Adaptation Theme Report: Increasing Marine Ecosystem Resilience.
Reference: Cheung, W.W.L. and Sumaila, U.R. (2011). MCA4climate: A practical framework for planning prodevelopment climate policies, Adaptation Theme Report: Increasing Marine Ecosystem Resilience. UNEP.
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