Impacts of Climate Change on the Coastal and Marine Physical Environments of Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
Temperature – sea surface temperature has risen by more than 1 °C over the last 100 years. Future temperature rises will have impacts on hurricanes, rainfall, coral reefs and wider marine ecosystems. Hurricanes - The IPCC (IPCC AR5 WG1) found strong evidence for an increase in the frequency and inte...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | unknown |
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2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/64718/ |
| Summary: | Temperature – sea surface temperature has risen by more than 1 °C over the last 100 years. Future temperature rises will have impacts on hurricanes, rainfall, coral reefs and wider marine ecosystems. Hurricanes - The IPCC (IPCC AR5 WG1) found strong evidence for an increase in the frequency and intensity of the strongest tropical hurricanes since the 1970s in the North Atlantic. El Niño- Understanding the influence of the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon on Caribbean’s marine environment and timescales of variability is key to understanding how climate has been changing; projecting these relationships and ENSO itself into the future becomes vital to understand the fingerprint of global warming in the region. Precipitation – there are a wide range of projections for future precipitation change in the area with some models finding increases in the coming century while most suggest a drier future for the region. Ocean surface aragonite saturation state (Ωarg) has declined by around 3% in the Caribbean region relative to pre-industrial levels. Climate variability – the Caribbean region needs a smaller increase in temperature for its conditions to become distinct (climate emergence) from the envelope of climate variability over the last hundred years, compared with the rest of the world. |
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