Potential Impacts of Climate Interventions on Marine Ecosystems

Abstract Rising global temperatures pose significant risks to marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and fisheries. Recent comprehensive assessments suggest that large‐scale mitigation efforts to limit warming are falling short, and all feasible future climate projections, including those that represent optimistic emissions reductions, exceed the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C or 2° warming targets during this century. While avoiding further CO 2 emissions remains the most effective way to prevent environmental destabilization, interest is growing in climate interventions—deliberate, large‐scale manipulations of the environment aimed at reducing global warming. These include carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to reduce atmospheric CO 2 concentrations over time, and solar radiation modification (SRM), which reflects sunlight to lower surface temperatures but does not address root CO 2 causes. The effects of these interventions on marine ecosystems, both direct and in combination with ongoing climate change, remain highly uncertain. Given the ocean's central role in regulating Earth's climate and supporting global food security, understanding these potential effects is crucial. This review provides an overview of proposed intervention methodologies for marine CDR and SRM and outlines the potential trade‐offs and knowledge gaps associated with their impacts on marine ecosystems. Climate interventions have the potential to reduce warming‐driven impacts, but could also alter marine food systems, biodiversity and ecosystem function. Effects will vary by pathway, scale, and regional context. Pathway‐specific impact assessments are thus crucial to quantify trade‐offs between plausible intervention scenarios as well as to identify their expected impacts on marine ecosystems in order to prioritize scaling efforts for low‐risk pathways and avoid high‐risk scenarios.

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Publication Details

Journal
Reviews of Geophysics
Published
2026-01-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024rg000876
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
28.32
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Potential Impacts of Climate Interventions on Marine Ecosystems

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Potential Impacts of Climate Interventions on Marine Ecosystems

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article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract Rising global temperatures pose significant risks to marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and fisheries. Recent comprehensive assessments suggest that large‐scale mitigation efforts to limit warming are falling short, and all feasible future climate projections, including those that represent optimistic emissions reductions, exceed the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C or 2° warming targets during this century. While avoiding further CO 2 emissions remains the most effective way to prevent environmental destabilization, interest is growing in climate interventions—deliberate, large‐scale manipulations of the environment aimed at reducing global warming. These include carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to reduce atmospheric CO 2 concentrations over time, and solar radiation modification (SRM), which reflects sunlight to lower surface temperatures but does not address root CO 2 causes. The effects of these interventions on marine ecosystems, both direct and in combination with ongoing climate change, remain highly uncertain. Given the ocean's central role in regulating Earth's climate and supporting global food security, understanding these potential effects is crucial. This review provides an overview of proposed intervention methodologies for marine CDR and SRM and outlines the potential trade‐offs and knowledge gaps associated with their impacts on marine ecosystems. Climate interventions have the potential to reduce warming‐driven impacts, but could also alter marine food systems, biodiversity and ecosystem function. Effects will vary by pathway, scale, and regional context. Pathway‐specific impact assessments are thus crucial to quantify trade‐offs between plausible intervention scenarios as well as to identify their expected impacts on marine ecosystems in order to prioritize scaling efforts for low‐risk pathways and avoid high‐risk scenarios.

Reviews of GeophysicsVol. 64(1)
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (US), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US), Florida State University (US), NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US), Griffith University (AU), University of Southern California (US), Louisiana State University (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Tasmania (AU), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US), Australian Antarctic Division (AU), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), University of Cape Town (ZA), University of California, Los Angeles (US), Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (US), Cornell University (US), University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (US), University of Bristol (GB), University of California San Diego (US), Sorbonne Université (FR), Indiana University Bloomington (US), Ecopath International Initiative (ES), NSF NCAR Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory (US), NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (US), Institut de Ciències del Mar (ES), Louisiana Sea Grant (US), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (FR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), McHenry County College (US)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
28.32
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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