Experts on marine science, policy and law came together on Friday at the Stanford Law School for a symposium on managing ocean ecosystems in an uncertain future of climate change. The daylong panel discussion was hosted by the Stanford Journal of Law, Science and Policy. ‘The event was an amazing cross-section of state agencies, academic institutions, government and students,’ said Meg Caldwell, a senior lecturer at the Law School and at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. Caldwell moderated a panel on protecting marine species. ‘This was real-time education for policymakers,’ added Caldwell, who also serves as director of the Center for Ocean Solutions, a collaboration of Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Several panelists described how global warming associated with climate change has already altered marine ecosystems. Rising sea temperatures have contributed to the die-off of 80 percent of corals in the Caribbean, said Brian Helmuth, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina. ‘The rate of temperature change really matters,’ he said. ‘When we increase temperatures above a certain threshold, animals’ enzymes don’t work and they can’t survive.’ A number of speakers predicted that […]