A new report from the Economist Impact and Nippon Foundation initiative, Back to Blue, calls for urgent, integrated actions to combat ocean acidification (OA) and halt biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems.
The report, Ocean Acidification and Biodiversity Loss: Connecting the Dots with Data, outlines critical recommendations for enhancing the scientific understanding of the direct links between OA and species decline, and ensuring effective policy responses to safeguard marine biodiversity.
Credit: Joan Li
An estimated 28% of the world’s animal and plant species are currently under threat of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This figure has increased steadily each year since the mid-1990s as the IUCN has increased its assessment efforts.
Climate-related biodiversity loss in the oceans is already well underway. “Coral reef systems, for example, are collapsing around the world,” says Pepe Clarke, oceans practice leader at WWF International. There was a roughly 50% decline in the world’s coral reef cover between 1957 and 2007. A consequence of that loss has been a reduced abundance of coral reef fish. Global catches of such fish peaked in volume in 2001 at around 2.3 million tonnes, after which they began to decline. These losses are often hardest hitting to those in small island developing states where coral reef fish are a major source of nutrition for inhabitants and income for fishing communities.
Recommendations for Urgent Action
Following a series of interviews with oceanographers and other experts in the field, the report highlights the need for an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together chemical and biological monitoring to accurately assess OA’s impact on marine life. This includes using common indicators to integrate data across different marine regions. It advocates for:
- Integrated Monitoring Systems: Research efforts must go beyond the laboratory to field data collection, linking ocean chemistry changes with biological responses in real environments.
- Focus on Causality: By establishing definitive links between OA and species decline, policymakers can better target interventions and avoid misdirected actions that could cause further harm.
- Proactive Policy Implementation: Governments are urged to act now, not wait for overwhelming evidence. Well-intentioned OA action plans often lack resources or priority, but the time to invest in preventing irreversible damage is critical.
One problem is that most ocean acidification research has happened in laboratories, said Steve Widdicombe, science director at the U.K-based Plymouth Marine Laboratory and lead adviser to Economist Impact’s Back to Blue initiative that published the report.
“We’ve done an awful lot of work in laboratories, including targeted experiments to see how ocean acidification affects different aspects of the physiology of organisms,” Widdicombe said here. “But in the real world, there are lots of other stressors, so it’s really difficult to pinpoint ocean acidification as the driver for that change you might see.”
Call for International Collaboration
The report also stresses the need for global coordination, including support from international organisations like the UN and GOA-ON, to develop standardised data sharing platforms. This will improve accessibility to key research findings and promote informed decision-making.
Pepe Clarke from WWF International sums up the urgency, stating, “We must link foundational research to the real-world effects on communities and businesses to make findings politically and socially relevant.”