Marine Ecosystem Responses to Cenozoic Global Change

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 341; no. 6145; pp. 492 - 498
• Main Authors: Norris, R. D., Turner, S. Kirtland, Hull, P. M., Ridgwell, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 02.08.2013; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animals; Aquatic ecosystems; Atmospherics; Biological Evolution; Carbonates; Cenozoic Era; Climate; Climate Change - history; Climate models; Earth; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Environmental impact; Geological time; Geology; Greenhouse Effect; History, Ancient; Intervals; Marine; Marine biology; Marine ecosystems; Oceans; Oceans and Seas; Paleoclimatology; Partial pressure; Reefs; REVIEWS; Seas; Seawater; Temperature; Tidal Waves; Vertebrates
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1240543

The future impacts of anthropogenic global change on marine ecosystems are highly uncertain, but insights can be gained from past intervals of high atmospheric carbon dioxide partial pressure. The long-term geological record reveals an early Cenozoic warm climate that supported smaller polar ecosystems, few coral-algal reefs, expanded shallow-water platforms, longer food chains with less energy for top predators, and a less oxygenated ocean than today. The closest analogs for our likely future are climate transients, 10,000 to 200,000 years in duration, that occurred during the long early Cenozoic interval of elevated warmth. Although the future ocean will begin to resemble the past greenhouse world, it will retain elements of the present "icehouse" world long into the future. Changing temperatures and ocean acidification, together with rising sea level and shifts in ocean productivity, will keep marine ecosystems in a state of continuous change for 100,000 years.