From tropical coral reefs to polar-ice edge communities, and from tiny zooplankton to polar bears, scientists have documented worrying declines in marine life which they believed could be at attributed, at least partly, to the impact of global warming.
The new report, "Turning Up the Heat: How Global Warming Threatens Life in the Sea" - compiled by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI) - warned that whole species could be wiped out by warmer waters.
The report was based on an extensive review of studies and a meeting earlier this year of some of the world's leading marine researchers. It said that warmer surface air temperatures, which most scientists blamed on the emission of greenhouse gases, also were gradually warming the world's oceans.
Surface water temperature had risen by about one degree Celsius over the past century and were expected to increase by up to