From tropical coral reefs to polar-ice edge communities, and from tiny zooplankton to polar bears, scientists have documented worrying declines in marine life which they believed could be at attributed, at least partly, to the impact of global warming.
Surface water temperature had risen by about one degree Celsius over the past century and were expected to increase by up to
another three degrees in the next 100 years if emissions - caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas - continued at current rates.
Marine life already was threatened by a number of human activities, the report pointed out. Overfishing had resulted in the collapse of major fisheries, and destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling had devastated the habitat of the sea floor.
Coastal development and other activities that resulted in the pollution of coastal waters had converted whole ares of the oceans into so-called "dead zones," while the invasion of alien species, often carried in ships' ballast water to distant habitats, has wiped out many native marine species around the world.
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