Climate change in the past: First indicators of resilience in tropical life, provided that global warming did not exceed 1.5 degrees
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-May-2026 00:15 ET (10-May-2026 04:15 GMT/UTC)
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.”
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