DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (News Release ref :
94/09) issued by COI News Distribution Service on 28 April 2009
A five-year,
£11million study into the effects of climate change on
Britain's seas has been announced as scientists warn of more
acidic seas affecting the food chain.
Ocean acidity, caused by increased amounts of carbon dioxide
(CO2) in the sea, has risen 30 per cent in the last 200 years,
faster than any time in the last 65million years, with serious
implications for sealife and our climate, according to a new report.
The sea absorbs CO2 in the atmosphere but over time as emissions
have increased it has become more acidic, which means not only
will it absorb less CO2 in future but that corals, plankton,
shellfish and other vital links in the food chain will be under threat.
Now Defra is jointly funding a major research programme with the
Natural Environment Research Councils (NERC). It will concentrate
on the North East Atlantic, Antarctic and Arctic oceans and study
the effects of acidification on biodiversity, habitats, species
and wider socio-economic implications.
Huw Irranca-Davies, Minister for the Natural & Marine
Environment, said: "Ocean acidification will be one of the
biggest environmental concerns of this century, with major and
far-reaching impacts.
"We need to understand much more about the scale and nature
of the effect CO2 is having on our oceans and marine life."
The report by the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership,
published today, also highlights how many small effects of climate
change are being magnified through important links with the marine
environment, and how distant events such as melting Arctic sea ice
may affect people, wildlife and the environment here. For more
information go to http://www.mccip.org.uk/elr.
The ocean acidification research programme is expected to run for
five years, with NERC funding £7.7million and Defra contributing
£2.5million in the first three years with a provisional commitment
of £800,000 over two more years. For more details of the UK
acidification programme go to: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/themes/earthsystem/events/ocean-acidification.asp.
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