2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting

February 21-26

Sustainable resource management in a variable climate requires an increased understanding of how climate, fishing, and other stressors interact to affect marine organisms, their habitats, predator-prey relationships, as well as related effects on people and economies. There is increasing evidence about the impacts of climate variability and change on marine ecosystems from the surface to the benthos. Climate-related parameters (e.g. ocean temperature, salinity, turbidity, stratification, currents, coastal precipitation, runoff, inundation, pH, etc.) can directly and indirectly affect marine ecosystem conditions. These changes are likely to impact the abundance, distribution, and productivity of the organisms composing the ecosystem, some that support economically important fisheries. Many of these changes remain undocumented or not rigorously evaluated especially between the Equator and the cooler temperate zones, perhaps due to their subtle nature.

 This session encourages contributions that illustrate that climate change is affecting marine ecosystems including people from the surface pelagic realm to the marine benthos. Of particular interest are: 1) biogeographic shifts and timing of life history behaviors (phenology) in response to changing water temperatures; 2) changing hydrodynamics and forcing (locally, regionally and oceanic); 3) ocean acidification; 4) changing geochemical conditions (e.g. salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll, other optical); and 5) sea level rise.

• EC - Estuarine and Coastal
• OD - Ocean Observing and Data Management
• PC - Past, Present and Future Climate
• PP - Phytoplankton and Primary Production