Transcript Report of the Director & CEO Gary G. Borisy

A Vicious Cycle
Climate
Change
Biodiversity
Loss
Ocean
Changes
Gary G. Borisy, Director & CEO
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA, USA
Oceans Day, Copenhagen
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
December 14, 2009
www.mbl.edu
Biodiversity Loss
Three planetary boundaries have been overstepped
Biodiversity loss
N2
Climate Change
Rockstrom et al., A safe operating space for humanity,
24 Sep 2009 Nature 461: 472 – 475
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
www.mbl.edu
Biodiversity Loss
• Human activities are driving the sixth
major extinction in the history of life,-a new era, the Anthropocene.
• Species are disappearing at 100 to
1,000 times the natural rate.
• At least 21% of mammal, 12% of bird
and 29% of amphibian species are
now threatened with extinction.
• Marine species threatened by ocean
acidification, loss of coral reefs and
loss of coastal habitats.
Nature 19 November 2009
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
• Species loss reverberates through
food webs, changes ecosystem
processes, and weakens their
resilience to climate change.
www.mbl.edu
Climate & Oceans
• The ocean is a major regulating force of climate system
• The ocean is the largest carbon store on the planet: 50 x
more CO2 in ocean than in atmosphere
• The ocean currently absorbs ~25% of the CO2 emitted into
the atmosphere (2008)
• But, the efficiency of the ocean to store CO2 has
decreased and is weakening
• The absorption of CO2 is leading to acidification of the
ocean
• The ocean sequesters carbon by means of a “biological
pump”
• See “Blue Carbon” The role of healthy oceans in binding
carbon. Nelleman et al., 2009; UNEP, FAO, IOC, IUCN
UNESCO interagency report
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
www.mbl.edu
Ocean Biological Pump
• The “biological pump” is a food
web of species interactions
• It depends critically on marine
biodiversity
• It begins with phytoplankton
responsible for fixing 50% of
planetary carbon
• It ultimately leads to sequestering
carbon in sediments on sea floor
• Ocean changes disrupt the food
web and, therefore, the pump
• Without the pump, atmospheric
levels of CO2 would be much
higher, -- 450 ppm
Chisholm, Nature 2000
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
www.mbl.edu
Protecting Biodiversity
• The linkage between marine biodiversity
and ecosystem function needs to be better
understood
• Some international efforts to discover and
catalogue biodiversity have been launched
-- Encyclopedia of Life
-- Census of Marine Life
-- International Census of Marine Microbes
-- International Barcode of Life
• CAMEO is a new US NSF program to
conduct comparative analysis of marine
ecosystem organization; L. Deegan, MBL
• 2010 is the UN International Year of
Biodiversity. Biodiversity summit in Nagoya.
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
www.mbl.edu
Closing Words
The one process now going on that will take
millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic
and species diversity by the destruction of
natural habitats. This is the folly that our
descendents are least likely to forgive us.
E.O. Wilson
© 2009 Marine Biological Laboratory
“Biophilia” 1984 p 121
www.mbl.edu