The quiet crossing of ocean tipping points

• Main Authors: Heinze, Christoph, Blenckner, Thorsten, Martins, Helena, Rusiecka, Dagmara, Ralf, Döscher, Gehlen, Marion, Nicolas, Gruber, Elisabeth, Holland, Øystein, Hov, Fortunat, Joos, John Brian Robin, Matthews, Rollf, Rødven, Wilson, Simon
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: ocean biogeochemistry; climate change; tipping points; regime shifts; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559422; https://zenodo.org/record/4559422

Anthropogenic climate change profoundly alters the ocean’s environmental conditions, which, in turn,impact marine ecosystems. Some of these changes are happening fast and may be difficult to reverse.The identification and monitoring of such changes, which also includes tipping points, is an ongoing andemerging research effort. Prevention of negative impacts requires mitigation efforts based on feasibleresearch-based pathways. Climate-induced tipping points are traditionally associated with singular cata-strophic events (relative to natural variations) of dramatic negative impact. High-probability high-impactocean tipping points due to warming, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation may be more fragmentedboth regionally and in time but add up to global dimensions. These tipping points in combination withgradual changes need to be addressed as seriously as singular catastrophic events in order to prevent thecumulative and often compounding negative societal and Earth system impacts.