A study led by William & Mary’s Batten School and Virginia Institute of Marine Science is predicting estuaries along the East Coast of the United States will experience marine heat wave conditions up to a third of the year by the end of the century.
With estuaries serving as important nursery habitats for nearly 75 percent of all fish species and supporting more than 54 million jobs, this could have devastating consequences for marine ecosystems, as well as the fisheries and communities that depend on them.
Published last Thursday in “Nature Scientific Reports,” the study used long-term monitoring data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Estuarine Research Reserve program to examine conditions in 20 estuaries across the U.S. over the past two decades. The results showed rising frequencies of marine heat waves in East Coast estuaries that, if continued as modeled, could have disastrous ecosystem consequences.
“The Chesapeake Bay, for example, currentl...