In a not-so-surprising turn of events, scientists predict that our planet's ocean life will undergo a mass extinction due to climate change in the next 300 years, refreshing concerns about the environment's condition.
The new study published by researchers in the journal Science this month details how ocean life could die at levels that rival the biggest mass extinctions in the history of the Earth. Experts said that the more the temperature rises, the lower the oxygen levels in the ocean would get. This means that more and more species of marine life will slowly die off and become extinct.
Ocean Life Mass Extinction
The scientists' analysis applies data that we know from an event called the "Great Dying," which is the most severe mass extinction event in the geological record. This extinction event took place roughly 252 million years ago, and it was where more than two-thirds of all ocean life in the Permian Period went extinct.
A professor of geosciences at Princeton University and an author of the paper, Curtis Deutsch, said that the Earth could see an ocean mass extinction if we are unable to curb emissions. The continuous rising of emissions, based on models by the study, says that we could reach Permian levels of extinction by 2300, as per Yahoo News.
The research notes that with rising temperature, species richness will decline near the tropics, causing some animals to migrate toward higher altitudes. But the most at-risk creatures are polar species as their habitat becomes a "disappearing climate niche."
But the mass extinction is not yet set in stone, and we are able to prevent that grim future if emissions stay near the levels that world leaders agreed to maintain in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Furthermore, a recent study said that marine animals would be able to fare far better if the situation became controlled.
According to NBC News, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton, Justin Penn, who also co-authored the study, said that "extinctions are largely avoided" under that scenario. However, the analysis is a horrific reminder of the hasty change of pace on Earth comparable to the most extreme events in history.
Preventing the Grim Future
Eric Galbraith, a professor at McGill University who is studying human and Earth system dynamics, said that in the coming decades, humans would be determining if the planet will really go deep into mass extinction once more. While he was not involved in the study, he said it was difficult to understand the importance of what we choose to do as a species in the future.
Before sending it for publication, Deutsch said that the team thought the title only showed the dark side of the result. However, he and Penn added a crucial word that they hoped would highlight that their finding of the scenario could still be avoided in the near future.
The study was later published under the title "Avoiding Ocean Mass Extinction From Climate Warming" on Thursday. Penn said that it was not an "aha" moment, recalling the first time he looked at a graph that compared past extinction events with the team's forecast. He said it was more of an "Oh my God" moment, the New York Times reported.
