Global ocean analysis shows that the food chain of marine life will collapse

China Science and Technology Network reported on October 13 (compiled by Zhang Wei) the world's first global analysis report, on the ocean's response to the rising carbon dioxide emissions of humans, and portrayed the grim scenes of future fisheries and marine ecosystems for us

Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), marine ecologists at the University of Adelaide report that expected ocean acidification and climate warming could lead to the diversity of marine ecosystems that support the world as well as The decline in the number of various key species

"This'simplified' version of the ocean will have a profound impact on our current life>

Associate Professor Ivan Nagelkerken and Sean Cornell, Professor of Marine Ecology at the University of Adelaide, conducted a meta-analysis of 632 experimental data that have been released.

"We don't know much about how climate change will affect the marine environment," Professor Cornell said

"Our analysis focuses on the results of all these experiments to study the comprehensive impact of multiple stress factors on the entire ocean, including the interactions between species and different measures to deal with climate change

Researchers have found that, except for the "limited range", the sea can adapt to the warming of water temperature and the acidification of the sea

From the perspective of a whole food web, under warm sea conditions, the primary production of the smallest plankton (the first ring in the ecological food chain) will increase, but this does not represent the secondary production (plankton and zooplankton).

"Warm seawater is accompanied by a high metabolic rate, so there is a greater demand for food, which creates a food shortage for carnivores (an important source of the fishery industry, larger fish)," said Associate Professor Ivan Nagelkerken

The analysis also shows that as the ocean heats up or ocean acidification increases, or both, it will have a detrimental effect on the formation of habitats for species such as corals, oysters and mussels

Another finding of this study is that ocean acidification will lead to a decline in methyl gas (DMS), which is produced by marine plankton and will help cloud formation and thereby control the earth’s heat exchange