Climate Change in Temperate Seas

Global climate change occurs.  The concern centres on the rate of current change.  Even if we maintain CO2 emissions at current levels (an unlikely scenario!) CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will increase by over 50 % in coming years. This increase will inturn cause ocean acidification as more CO2 is dissolved into the worlds oceans.

Although there is a rapidly increasing body of information on the effects of climate change in tropical systems (i.e. coral reefs), the impacts are potentially greater in colder waters (i.e. southern Australia), yet we don't even know the basics of what's going to happen. Our research forecats future temperate habitats under projected estaimtes of climate change (e.g. ocean acidification, temperature) and local managment (e.g. fishing & pollution).