Marine climate change impacts highlighted in new Report Card
A report highlighting just how far climate change has already impacted the United Kingdom’s marine environment, and what might happen in the future, is published today.
Rapidly following on from the publication of the Stern Report, which documented the economic case for tackling climate change, the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) has produced a new “Annual Report Card” (ARC) focusing on the marine environment.
The Annual Report Card is based on scientific reviews by leading scientists from 18 organisations around the UK, including Cefas. The ARC covers topics in four sections:
Climate change in the marine environment: Temperature, salinity, storms and waves, large-scale oceanic processes, sea level, acidification, stratification and the seabed
Impacts on our vision for a healthy and biologically diverse marine ecosystem:Plankton, fish, marine mammals, seabirds, non-natives and inter-tidal species and seabed ecology
Impacts on our vision for a clean and safe sea: Coastal flooding, nutrient enrichment, harmful algal blooms and pollution
Impacts on our vision for commercially productive seas: Shipping, tourism, built structures, fisheries and aquaculture.
The report briefly outlines the actual and potential impacts of climate change for each topic with an estimate of confidence (high, medium or low) for each of the assessments.
The Annual Report Card concludes that:
- Large changes in our marine environment, which are driven in part by climate change, are being observed. These changes are altering the amount, variety and distributions of marine species at all levels of the marine ecosystem, from plankton through to fish and top predators such as seabirds.
- Increasing sea surface temperature is having a major impact on marine ecosystems, with an apparent northwards shift of some 1,000km of warm-water plankton (with a similar retreat of cold-water species) and an increased abundance of warm-water species of fish being observed in our seas.
- Interactions between different parts of the marine ecosystem are complicated. Exactly how the whole system ties together and responds to change is as yet not well understood.
Speaking on behalf of the government and devolved administrations, Climate Change Minister, Ian Pearson, said today:
“Climate change is the biggest environmental issue the world faces, on land and at sea. Our seas play a vital role in shaping and regulating our climate and have a tremendous bearing on our future wellbeing.
"There is a lot we still do not understand about the impact climate change will have on our oceans, but the Report Card gives us, at a glance, the latest scientific knowledge, which will improve our understanding and our capacity to act."
The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) was launched in March 2005 by government and the devolved administrations as part of a response to Charting Progress: An Integrated Assessment of the State of UK Seas.
Detailed briefings on all the topics covered in the report card, including the work contributed by Cefas scientists on
- Ocean salinity
- Sea-shelf statrification (ie, layering)
- The Seabed (near and offshore)
- Nutrient enrichment
- Pollution
- Built structures
- Fisheries
The report can be found on the MCCIP website at www.mccip.org.uk/arc. 
