WHY IT MATTERS: Elvira Poloczanska at the Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization says oceans cover 70 percent of the planet, but studying them is often very expensive.
Wikipedia Oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth's surface
Although many researchers agree that aquatic systems are extremely vulnerable to climate change, marine research is severely under-resourced when compared to research being done on land.
Scientists say this shortfall of aquatic research and documentation is due to many factors, including the distribution of global science funding, the difficulty of understanding poorly sampled aquatic systems, the way marine ecologists report research findings, and limitations in the existing Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) process.
Source:
Audio excerpt courtesy of the weekly podcast of the journal Science.
