[MCN] Climate change in the past: First indicators of resilience in tropical life, provided that global warming did not exceed 1.5 degrees

[Lance Olsen]

26-Feb-2026
Climate change in the past: First indicators of resilience in tropical life, provided that global warming did not exceed 1.5 degrees
UTRECHT UNIVERSITY
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATION
New geological data indicate that marine life is somewhat resilient to warming in the tropics. Chris Fokkema, earth scientist at Utrecht University, discovered that tropical algae were largely unaffected by a number of periods of global warming of up to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the distant past. These unicellar organisms form the basis of food webs and are generally very sensitive to rising temperatures. Previous studies of periods of even greater warming showed a dramatic decline in these organisms. “Somewhere beyond those 1.5 degrees, a tipping point occurs.”

JOURNAL
Geology
 <https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1117878>
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2002 - “Although we are only at an early stage in the projected trends of global warming, ecological responses to recent climate change are already clearly visible.”

Walther et al, “Ecological responses to recent climate change.” Nature, March 28, 2002
https://www.nature.com/articles/416389a
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2006 - “Climate change is not a new topic in biology...... Observations of range shifts in parallel with climate change ... date back to the mid-1700s.”

“This review  …  deals exclusively with observed responses of wild biological species and systems ….  “

"A surprising result is the high proportion of species responding to recent, relatively mild climate change (global average warming of 0.6 C)." 

Parmesan, Camille. Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change. The Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics  37: pp. 637-69. 2006.
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.37.091305.110100


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