Percorso:ANSA > Nuova Europa > Montenegro > Mediterranean more acidic,less fertile,due to climate change

Mediterranean more acidic,less fertile,due to climate change

OGS and CMCC study simulates marine ecosystem response

15 September, 17:08
(ANSA) - TRIESTE, SEP 15 - Acidification, oxygen depletion, fewer nutrients, and planktonic microorganisms at the base of food chains: these phenomena would characterize the Mediterranean Sea at the end of this century, according to a new study conducted by the National Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics Institute (OGS), based in Trieste, with the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change Foundation (CMCC).

"The research team analyzed the response of marine ecosystems to two different CO2 emission scenarios by using high-resolution mathematical models," underlined Tomas Lovato (CMCC), co-author of the study.

The worst scenario simulates an uninterrupted growth in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere up to 1200 ppm (parts per million) at the end of the century. The more optimistic one predicts a cut in emissions and a stabilization of atmospheric CO2 at around 500 ppm. Both scenarios envisage a warmer Mediterranean characterized by a general decline in nutrients and oxygen in the surface and intermediate layers. In addition, due to the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere, the water column will become more acidic, in line with global scale projections. (ANSA).

© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved