Coastal Regions Experiencing Dramatic Changes in Climate

According to a new study, coastal regions are experiencing greater climatic changes when compared to other regions. The study included analysis of data of coastal ocean temperatures over the past three decades.

The researchers, Dr. Hannes Baumann of Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) and Dr. Owen Doherty of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, found that there was a dramatic change in climate conditions in the coastal regions. The South American Pacific coasts, for example, have been cooling in the past few years due to colder water from the deeper part of the ocean being pushed to the coastal region, a phenomenon called upwelling.

However, some areas have gotten warmer such as the North Pacific and North Atlantic coasts, where researchers found the temperatures were three times higher than the global average.

Scientists say that diversity in the temperatures could lead to dramatic changes in the population of native marine life. Oceans are complex and delicate systems and a recent study has shown that marine organisms will require centuries to adapt to current changes in the environment.

According to another study, State of Maryland sea level could rise by as much as two feet by 2050. 

"The world is getting flatter," said Baumann in a news release. "Coastal waters at high (cold) latitudes warm much faster than at low (warm) latitudes, hence the majority of the world's coastal temperature gradients are getting shallower.  This could cause dramatic reorganization of organisms and ecosystems, from small plankton communities to larger fish populations.

Many organisms that live in the northern coasts differ genetically from the southern organisms so that they can adapt to their habitat. With further study, we want to explore how changes in coastal ocean temperature gradients could predict large-scale changes in the ecosystem," Baumann added.

The study "Decadal Changes in the World's Coastal Latitudinal Temperature Gradients," is published in the journal PLOS One.