Rapid Warming, Acidification, Greening and Deoxygenation in the Global Coastal Ocean
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The coastal ocean and its vital ecosystem services are threatened by human perturbations of both global climate and nutrient cycles, leading to severe regional warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and algae blooms (greening). Globally however, the large-scale deterioration of the coastal environment has remained inadequately assessed due to methodological limitations. Using a comprehensive model and observational basis, we demonstrate warming, acidification, greening, and deoxygenation occurring in the global coastal ocean since the 1900s and an acceleration of these trends over the last four decades. Coastal changes critically exceed global open ocean changes since the 1980s (1.6-fold for warming, 1.8-fold for acidification, 7.8-fold for biological productivity, and 2.4-fold for deoxygenation), with 76% of the global coastal ocean subject to at least three stressors with perturbations larger than open ocean means. Our study underlines the need to emphasize constraining coastal ocean changes within assessments of global ocean health and ecosystem resilience.
