Climate change can trigger extensive sea-floor reorganization, resulting in rapid losses of ocean biodiversity, according to the latest update to a 30-year study conducted by the California Academy of Sciences and UCSB geologist James Kennett. In analyzing more than 5,400 fossils of invertebrates like claims and snails, the team concluded that low oxygen levels created by global warming have meant a loss of species on the ocean’s bottom. Kennett said the study was the first of its kind to use data from both single-celled and multicellular organisms.
