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Daily ocean monitoring since the 1860s shows record warming of northern European seas
MacKenzie, B.R.; Schiedek, D. (2007). Daily ocean monitoring since the 1860s shows record warming of northern European seas. Glob. Chang. Biol. 13(7): 1335-1347. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01360.x
In: Global Change Biology. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford. ISSN 1354-1013; e-ISSN 1365-2486
Related to:
MacKenzie, B.R.; Schiedek, D. (2007). Daily ocean monitoring since the 1860s shows record warming of northern European seas. CM Documents - ICES, CM 2007(B:02). ICES: Copenhagen. 32 pp., more
Peer reviewed article  
Available in  Authors 
    Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee: Open access 123702 [ download pdf ]
Keywords
    Climate change
    Climatic changes > Climate change
    Properties > Water properties > Temperature > Water temperature > Surface temperature
    Surface temperature
    Surface temperature
    ANE, Baltic [Marine Regions]; ANE, North Sea [Marine Regions]
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    Baltic Sea; climate change; North Sea; surface temperature; warming
Authors  Top 
  • MacKenzie, B.R.
  • Schiedek, D.
Abstract
    Ocean temperatures in most parts of the world are increasing and are expected to continue to rise during the 21st century. A major challenge to ecologists and marine resource managers is to understand and predict how these global changes will affect species and ecosystems at local scales where temperature more directly affects biological responses and species interactions. Here, we investigate historical variability in regional sea surface temperature in two large heavily exploited marine ecosystems and compare these variations with expected rates of temperature change for the 21st century. We use four of the world’s longest calibrated daily time series to show that trends in surface temperatures in the North and Baltic Seas now exceed those at any time since instrumented measurements began in 1861 and 1880. Temperatures in summer since 1985 have increased at nearly triple the global warming rate, which is expected to occur during the 21st century and summer temperatures have risen two to five times faster than those in other seasons. These warm temperatures and rates of change are due partly to an increase in the frequency of extremely warm years. The recent warming event is exceeding the ability of local species to adapt and is consequently leading to major changes in the structure, function and services of these ecosystems.
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