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Declining oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters
Open accessAbstract
Beneath the waves, oxygen disappears: As plastic waste pollutes the oceans and fish stocks decline, unseen below the surface another problem grows: deoxygenation. Breitburg et al. review the evidence for the downward trajectory of oxygen levels in increasing areas of the open ocean and coastal waters. Rising nutrient loads coupled with climate change—each resulting from human activities—are changing ocean biogeochemistry and increasing oxygen consumption. This results in destabilization of sediments and fundamental shifts in the availability of key nutrients. In the short term, some compensatory effects may result in improvements in local fisheries, such as in cases where stocks are squeezed between the surface and elevated oxygen minimum zones. In the longer term, these conditions are unsustainable and may result in ecosystem collapses, which ultimately will cause societal and economic harm. Science , this issue p. eaam7240
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“As climate change accelerates, an earlier onset and later termination of hypoxic conditions along with latitudinal expansions (Breitburg et al., 2018), may also make the co-occurrence of HABs and hypoxia more common.”
From Harmful algal blooms: A climate change co-stressor in marine and freshwater ecosystems (2020) · cites this paper as Breitburg et al., 2018
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“Despite the awareness of ocean deoxygenation as an emergent climate change stressor (Levin and Breitburg, 2015;Breitburg et al., 2018), the interactive effects between HABs and hypoxia are relatively unknown.”
From Harmful algal blooms: A climate change co-stressor in marine and freshwater ecosystems (2020) · cites this paper as Breitburg et al., 2018
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“Climate change likely contributes to these trends as the shallow bathymetries and complex topographies can lead to rapid warming (Scanes et al., 2020), and shifts in watershed processes (e.g.nutrient delivery) accelerate DO declines in many regions (Breitburg et al., 2018;Howarth et al., 2011).”
From Warming and hypoxia reduce the performance and survival of northern bay scallops (Argopecten irradians irradians) amid a fishery collapse (2023) · cites this paper as Breitburg et al., 2018
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“Large amounts of organic matter associated with algal blooms can stimulate microbial respiration that depletes dissolved oxygen and produces CO 2 , promoting hypoxia (Fig. 1; Diaz and Rosenberg, 2008;Gilbert et al., 2010;Breitburg et al., 2018) and acidification (Fig. 1; Cai et al., 2011;Waldbusser et al., 2011;Wallace et al., 2014;Baumann et al., 2015).”
From Harmful algal blooms: A climate change co-stressor in marine and freshwater ecosystems (2020) · cites this paper as Breitburg et al., 2018
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“T amount of oxygen dissolved in the modern ocean is decreasing (1, 2), due, in part, to the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
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“In addition to global changes such as atmospheric warming, land use is an important anthropogenic impact that is having profound regional effects on coastal marine and freshwater communities and biochemistry (Camargo and Alonso 2006; Breitburg et al. 2018).”
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“The predictions and projections of the distribution and extent of ocean deoxygenation and the cumulative effects of other drivers of global change afforded by the observational verification of numerical models, need to also extend to predictions of the consequences of ocean deoxygenation on the ecosystem services and…”
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“Expansion of oxygen-deficient and anoxic zones, and increased rates of carbon mineralization are expected in the oceans and coastal seas, driven by increased temperature and nutrient inputs (Breitburg et al. 2018).”
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“Ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation are three of the primary threats to marine species and ecosystems caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (Breitburg et al., 2018; Doney, 2010; Harley et al., 2006).”
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“Following the widespread use of fertilizers since the 1950’s, many coastal areas have seen an introduction or expansion of hypoxia (≤2 mg O2 L−1; Breitburg et al., 2018).”
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“Over the last 60 years, DMW has expanded in volume more than fourfold (Schmidtko et al., 2017) because of oceanic warming – reducing oxygen solubility – and eutrophication (reviewed by Breitburg et al., 2018).”
BackgroundImpacts of 1.5°C Global Warming on Natural and Human Systems
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Metadata
- Authors
- Breitburg, D., Levin, L. A., Oschlies, A., Grégoire, M., Chavez, F. P., Conley, D. J., Garçon, V., Gilbert, D., Gutiérrez, D., Isensee, K., Jacinto, G. S., Limburg, K. E., Montes, I., Naqvi, S. W. A., Pitcher, G. C., Rabalais, N. N., Roman, M. R., Rose, K. A., Seibel, B. A., Telszewski, M., Yasuhara, M., & Zhang, J.
- Affiliations
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (DE)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA.
- Lund University (SE)
- CNRS/Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales, 31401 Toulouse, CEDEX 9, France.
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada (CA)
- Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (PE)
- Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (FR)
- University of the Philippines Diliman (PH)
- SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (US)
- Instituto Geofísico del Perú, Lima, Perú.
- Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KW)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Louisiana State University (US)
- University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (US)
- University of South Florida St. Petersburg (US)
- Instytut Oceanologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk (PL)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Breitburg, Denise
- ORCID
- Breitburg, Denise
- Levin, Lisa A.
- Oschlies, Andreas
- Grégoire, Marilaure
- Chavez, Francisco P.
- Conley, Daniel J.
- Gilbert, Denis
- Gutiérrez, Dimitri
- Isensee, Kirsten
- Jacinto, Gil S.
- Limburg, Karin E.
- Montes, Ivonne
- Naqvi, S. W. A.
- Pitcher, Grant C.
- Rabalais, Nancy N.
- Roman, Michael R.
- Rose, Kenneth A.
- Seibel, Brad A.
- Telszewski, Maciej
- Yasuhara, Moriaki
- Zhang, Jing
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2018-01-05
- Volume
- 359
- Issue
- 6371
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2781567654
- Cited by
- 3,253
- References
- 129
- Citations by year
- 2026: 402 · 2025: 446 · 2024: 528 · 2023: 449 · 2022: 383 · 2021: 450 · 2020: 281 · 2019: 212 · 2018: 96
- FWCI
- 21.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- public-domain
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) (acceptedVersion)
- NOAA Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Civil War Book Review (submittedVersion)
- Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Liège) (submittedVersion)
- Smithsonian Digital Repository (Smithsonian Institution) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- DFG (SFB754)
- NOAA-CSCOR (NA10NOS4780138)
- Maryland Sea Grant (SA75281450-P)
- NSF-EAR (1324095)
- FNRS and the BENTHOX program (T.1009.15)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Plankton and Biogeochemistry
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Biology and Ecology Research
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Marine and fisheries research
- Keywords
- ocean deoxygenation, coastal waters, microbial respiration, oxygen solubility, nutrient loading, global warming, marine fisheries, estuarine ecosystems
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Biological, Animals, Conservation of Natural Resources, Environmental Monitoring, Fisheries, Oceans and Seas, Oxygen, Seawater, Global Warming, Aquatic Organisms
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