UK Climate Change Programme 2006 - JNCC - Defra

140
Adaptation
and that climate change is linked more broadly to
work on socio-economic change in the
agriculture sector.
40. The impacts of climate change are less wellstudied
for the marine environment. Climate
change could significantly affect the physical,
biological and biogeochemical characteristics of
the oceans and coasts, modifying their ecological
structure and functions.
41. Changes in sea water temperature is changing
the species composition of phytoplankton, the
microscopic plants which respond to temperature,
light and nutrients and form the lowest level in
the food web. Such changes could also affect the
life forms higher up the food web. More directly,
sea temperature changes could affect the
reproductive success of species at a given latitude
and, thus, affect the abundance of animals and
plants of any size. Since around 1987, changes in
plankton have been considered so large-scale that
they have been described as a regime shift. There
has been increased primary productivity, merging
of the spring and autumn blooms and a switch
in the dominant species. This has been
accompanied by the northward movement of
plankton species by about 10 degrees of latitude.
42. More specific action is now being taken to
investigate the possible impacts of climate
change in the marine environment:
• The Government and the UK Climate Impacts
Programme (UKCIP) are establishing a Marine
Climate Change Impact Partnership in order
to develop a long-term, multidisciplinary
approach to understanding the implications
for the marine ecosystem.
• Within the UK Marine Monitoring Strategy,
relevant indicators will be identified to
monitor and evaluate the effects of climate
change on marine ecosystems.
We will commission an assessment of the
changes in the distribution and abundance
of marine species in relation to changes in
hydrodynamics and sea temperature.
We will combine knowledge and expertise
on the impacts of climate change in the
marine environment through the Marine
Climate Change Impacts Partnership.
43. Much of the research to date has been carried
out to inform specific individual sectors about the
implications of climate change. However, there
may be more surprises in store as climate-related
impacts on one sector bring with them indirect
effects for another. Many of these cross-sectoral
issues are much less studied, yet robust
adaptation decisions in sectoral policy areas will
need to take into account the implications of
those decisions for facilitating or preventing
effective adaptation in related sectors.
We will commission a programme of
research to investigate cross-sectoral issues
in adapting to the impacts of climate change
in the UK.
44. Knowledge and understanding of the impacts of
climate change is growing not only in the UK, but
internationally too. The field of adaptation is still
relatively young, and there is scope to learn much
from initial efforts both in the UK and elsewhere
to take effective adaptation. In order to be
robust, policy-making needs to be flexible, build
on the latest research, and allow the latest results
to inform policy and planning.
We will commission an academic “Climate
Change Impacts Review Group” to produce a
review of the impacts of climate change and
adaptation in the UK.
We will conduct a review of current activities
to assess the impacts of climate change in
the marine environment.