Document Type

Vignette

Publication Date

5-2021

Keywords

State of the Salish Sea, Salish Sea, ecosystem, climate change, hypoxia, biodiversity, stressor event

Abstract

An important part of biodiversity monitoring includes assessing the differences in vulnerability across parts of an ecosystem. Hypoxia is one of the big three climate- related stressors causing biodiversity loss in the oceans. As the ocean warms, its capacity to hold oxygen becomes reduced. At the same time, concurrent shifts in circulation result in changes to how oxygen gets transported from the surface (where oxygen dissolves into the ocean) to the seafloor and from offshore to inshore areas. When a habitat experiences a substantial drop in oxygen, below the point needed to sustain everyday life, animals respond by migrating away, adapting to the new conditions, or dying from suffocation. The key to linking the biodiversity response to the oceanographic change is to simultaneously monitor both because high levels of variability are intrinsic to both sides in the ecology equation.

Publication Title

State of the Salish Sea

First Page

222

Last Page

223

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25710/vfhb-3a69

Sponsorship/Conference/Institution

Salish Sea Institute

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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