Marine scientists warn human safety, prosperity depend on better ocean observ...(Climate and ocean acidity A more fully...)

A more fully developed ocean observing system will foster important new insights into how altered ocean conditions, including warmer water and increasing acidity, affect weather, climate and the role of the oceans as a carbon sink. Scientists want to know how warmer water, for example, impacts microscopic life forms that consume some 50 giga-tonnes of carbon per year, about the same as all plants and trees on land.

Water resources

As the planets primary reservoir, oceans govern the global water cycle. Improved ocean observations will help scientists better understand precipitation patterns.

Marine ecosystems and biodiversity

A majority of life on Earth eats, swims, crawls, fights and lives in oceans. Water temperatures affect where species live and travel, as well as the distribution of nutrients, plankton and on up the food web. An integrated ocean observing system will illuminate the impact of shifting ocean conditions and pollution on marine and coastal ecosystems and the distribution, abundance and biodiversity of organisms.

Calls for Action

D. James Baker, former Administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says: The exciting progress to date also shows the size of the remaining opportunity. We have pathetically few measurements of the oceans relative to their importance to life on Earth and the extent to which we rely on them for energy, weather, food and recreation.

According to South African oceanographer John Field, chair of the Scientific Committee of the Global Ocean Observing System: In the first few decades of this century we can develop an ocean observing system comparable in value to the system we so appreciate for our weather forecasts. If in the year 2020 ocean monitoring and prediction are much improved, we may recall the 2007 Cape Town Summit as when governments intensified the key commitments.