Climate Change and its Impact on Marine Life
Human activity is changing the oceans, raising water temperatures and causing large-scale coral destruction. Together with increasing atmospheric CO2 levels, which cause ocean acidification, these changes may lead to the growth of toxic algae that could affect global carbon and nutrient cycles.
Research in the Department of Marine Biology led by Dr. Tamar Lotan focuses on the effects of rising temperatures, acidity, and heavy metal toxicity on the life cycle of corals and sea anemones, and on the widespread emergence of massive blooms of their close relatives, the jellyfish.