Ocean warming to impact food production in India, elsewhere

Kochi, Sep 11 (PTI) Food security of India and severalother major key food producing countries are threatened bychanging weather patterns due to warming of the oceans, whichmay well be the "greatest" hidden challenge for the presentgeneration, according to a study. Changes in ocean-focused atmospheric patterns have direct implications on food production as the yield is impacted. "The consequences for society of changing weather patterns due tothe warming of the oceans are considerable," said the reporttitled "Explaining ocean warming: causes, scale, effects andconsequences". The report released by the International Union forConservation of Nature (IUCN) said they involve a mix of foodand water factors, and the evolution of various types of risk. Noting that there have already been changes toprecipitation patterns in a number of areas of the planetresulting from large-scale atmospheric teleconnections withocean warming, the report said there can be increased rainfallin some mid-latitude and monsoon areas and decrease overvarious sub-tropical regions. "Both will have impacts on the yields of crops over arange of important food producing areas such as Australia,North America and India," it said. The report said there were good correlations between wheatand maize yields with the NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) andPDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation), so changes in theseocean-focused atmospheric patterns have direct implications onfood production. Similarly, increasing temperatures tend to reduce maizeyields, if all other factors are held constant, it said.   "At sea, warming temperatures will cause changes to theabundance and range of marine species used for food, leading toimplications for both the billion people who depend on fish fortheir principal source of protein and the fishing andaquaculture industries linked to this harvesting." It also warned that the changes in the ocean are happeningbetween 1.5 and 5 times faster than those on land.   "Such range shifts are potentially irreversible, with greatimpacts on ecosystems. What this will result in, decades downthe line, is less clear. "It is an experiment where, rather than being a casualobserver in the lab, we have unwittingly placed ourselvesinside the test-tube," it said, adding that ocean warming maywell turn out to be the greatest hidden challenge of ourgeneration. (MORE) PTI TGB VSDIPDK