Ecology
The warming of the world's oceans can cause an increase in the number of serious diseases that will cost millions of dollars to the healthcare sector, scientists say at a conference in Brussels.
A recent report states that rising ocean temperatures are causing the spread of Vibrio bacteria, which can lead to food poisoning, severe gastroenteritis, sepsis and cholera.
Huge health costs can result from the consumption of contaminated seafood and the ingestion of water-borne pathogens. Climatic conditions play a significant role in the spread of these diseases.
The report also describes a number of other documented and predicted consequences of ocean warming, including melting ice, rising water levels, coastal erosion, increased intensity and frequency storms, and chemical changes in the oceans themselves, including oxidation and loss of oxygen.
Katja Philippart, an ocean researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Ocean Research, says much of this is already happening faster than expected .
Within a few decades, the fish population in the North Sea will change significantly. At the same time, large species will move to the Arctic, and small ones will take their place.
Scientists say that the concentration of bacteria of the genus Vibrio has been observed since the 1960s. When temperatures in the North Sea began to rise in the late 1980s, the number of vibrios began to increase and some of them were cholera species.
In the Baltic region, there were more cases of gastroenteritis than usual in 2006, but the extent of the risk is still unclear.
So some of the consequences may themselves contribute to global warming. Greater ocean acidification could mean that algae would be able to absorb less carbon dioxide, so there would be an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, which could lead to even more warming.