Climate Variability and Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics: Implications for Sustainability

Abstract

Climate variability and change will fundamentally alter the physical structure of the oceans with direct implications for marine ecosystems and human societies (IPCC 2001). These changes will be superimposed on other impacts resulting from human activities including fishing, pollution, and habitat loss in coastal areas. Climate change can interact with other human-induced change to alter the fundamental production characteristics of marine systems. Living marine resources have sustained human cultures for millennia as an essential source of protein and as a cornerstone of maritime commerce and trade. However, continuously increasing fishing pressure and demand related to the burgeoning human population have resulted in declines in many previously abundant fish and shellfish populations. It is now clear that humans have the capacity to outstrip the production potential of the world’s oceans. Climate change will exacerbate the stress on living marine resources imposed by harvesting and other anthropogenic activities in many regions of the world’s oceans.