More climate change ocean studies urged

CANBERRA, Australia, June 11 (UPI) -- Australian scientists say Earth's science community must devote more research into the effect climate change is having on our oceans.

The researchers are from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO -- Australia's government body for scientific research.

"Marine ecosystems are undoubtedly under-resourced, overlooked and under threat and our collective knowledge of impacts on marine life is a mere drop in the ocean," said Anthony Richardson of The University of Queensland and CSIRO, and his co-author, Elvira Poloczanska, also from CSIRO.

"There is an overwhelming bias toward land-surface studies, which arise in part because investigating the ocean realm is generally difficult, resource-intensive and expensive," they said.

Poloczanska said climate change is affecting ocean temperatures, nutrient supplies from the land, ocean chemistry, food chains, shifts in wind systems, ocean currents and extreme events such as cyclones.

"All of these in turn affect the distribution, abundance, breeding cycles and migrations of marine plants and animals, which millions of people rely on for food and income," he said.

The scientists present their study and conclusions in the journal Science.