Ocean life facing major shock

Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 17:00 in Earth & Climate

The researchers compared events which drove mass extinctions of sea life in the past with what is currently happening in our oceans, and found life in the oceans face greater challenges than ever before and may take millions of years to recover.  Image: cinoby/iStockphoto Life in the world’s oceans faces far greater change and risk of large-scale extinctions than at any previous time in human history, a team of the world’s leading marine scientists has warned.The researchers from Australia, the US, Canada, Germany, Panama, Norway and the UK have compared events which drove massive extinctions of sea life in the past with what is observed to be taking place in the seas and oceans globally today.Three of the five largest extinctions of the past 500 million years were associated with global warming and acidification of the oceans – trends which also apply today, the scientists say in a new article in the...

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