By 2300, life in the oceans is facing a mass extinction rivaling the great extinctions of Earth’s deep past if humanity fails to curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study published in the journal Science.
But limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would prevent such a catastrophe, say paper authors Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch, both from the University of Washington and Princeton.
The authors used ecophysiological modeling to correlate the species’ physical limits with predicted sea temperature and oxygen decline, a task that has been particularly challenging given the lack of previous studies.
With uncontrolled warming, marine ecosystems across the planet could experience a mass extinction comparable to the end-Permian extinction known as the “Great Dying”.