SYDNEY, Oct 30 (NNN-AAP) – Even Australia’s most protected marine habitats are likely to suffer extreme ocean impacts by 2040, due to climate change, threatening thousands of plant and animal species, new research warned.
Climate change will mean ocean conditions considered “extreme” today will become “the new normal” in just 15 years, according to a statement released yesterday, by Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), which conducted the research.
“This unprecedented scenario will create warmer waters with higher acidity and lower oxygen levels, at the mercy of more frequent and intense marine heatwaves,” said the study’s lead author, Alice Pidd, a quantitative marine ecologist undertaking a PhD at UniSC.
“Worryingly, this timeline will apply to even key marine refuges around the continent, that support biodiversity, owing to their slower-changing conditions,” said Pidd.
The study assessed the exposure of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), to the effects of climate change this century.
“MPAs are important tools in reducing the impacts of human activities, such as fishing, shipping, mining and tourism, but they weren’t designed with the realities of climate change in mind, and their location alone won’t protect them from its impacts,” she said.
MPAs, which comprise about half of Australia’s seven million square km of marine estate, are legally designated to conserve biodiversity, including coral reefs, kelp forests, seagrass beds and mangroves, and support sustainable fisheries.
Co-author, UniSC Professor, David Schoeman, noted, the study used conservative warming scenarios of 1.8 degrees Celsius and highlighted that MPAs will be “as vulnerable as unprotected ocean areas, when faced with rapid warming, oxygen loss, acidification and heatwaves.”
The team called for urgent, aggressive action, on reducing carbon emissions and advocate for climate-smart MPAs, that are robust to future ocean climate.– NNN-AAP
