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Biologists ignore ocean weather at their peril

Ecologists must understand how marine life responds to changing local conditions, rather than to overall global temperature rise, say Amanda E. Bates and 16 colleagues.
  1. Amanda E. Bates

    1. Amanda E. Bates is associate professor of ocean sciences at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada, and a Canada Research Chair in marine physiological ecology.

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  2. Brian Helmuth

    1. Brian Helmuth is a professor at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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  3. Michael T. Burrows

    1. Michael T. Burrows is a professor at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, UK.

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  4. Murray I. Duncan

    1. Murray I. Duncan is a PhD candidate at Rhodes University and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown, South Africa.

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  5. Joaquim Garrabou

    1. Joaquim Garrabou is senior researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences CSIC, Barcelona, Spain; and Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, France.

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  6. Tamar Guy-Haim

    1. Tamar Guy-Haim is research fellow at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany.

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  7. Fernando Lima

    1. Fernando Lima is a research scholar at the CIBIO/University of Porto, Portugal.

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  8. Ana M. Queiros

    1. Ana M. Queiros is a senior benthic ecologist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK.

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  9. Rui Seabra

    1. Rui Seabra is a postdoctoral researcher at the CIBIO/University of Porto, Portugal.

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  10. Robert Marsh

    1. Robert Marsh is professor at the University of Southampton, UK.

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  11. Jonathan Belmaker

    1. Jonathan Belmaker is a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

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  12. Nathaniel Bensoussan

    1. Nathaniel Bensoussan is a research associate at Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Spain.

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  13. Yunwei Dong

    1. Yunwei Dong is professor at Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.

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  14. Antonios D. Mazaris

    1. Antonios D. Mazaris is an assistant professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

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  15. Dan Smale

    1. Dan Smale is a research fellow at the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK.

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  16. Martin Wahl

    1. Martin Wahl is a professor at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany.

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  17. Gil Rilov

    1. Gil Rilov is a senior scientist at Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Haifa, Israel.

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Black rockfish in bull kelp

Fish and other marine life are affected by ocean weather: drastic variations in temperature, pH, oxygen and salinity that are in turn influenced by climate change. Credit: Alex Mustard/NPL

The ocean can turn on a dime. Temperature, pH, oxygen levels and salinity can vary drastically — across distances of centimetres and within time frames of minutes1–3. That’s the latest view being revealed by measurements from thousands of instruments anchored to shores or attached to floats, ocean gliders and ships.

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Nature 560, 299-301 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05869-5

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