On 9 November 2020 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Climate Change (IPCC), published a report in which it stated that the global warming of the planet caused by humans is already a fact, that its consequences are “irreversible” and that what remains to be seen is the intensity of the destruction. The natural environment and the climate, as we have known them until now in the Pitiusas, will suffer an major transformation. A near future in which, among the diverse changes that could be produced, it is expected that the posidonia meadows will all but disappear.

“In August, the sea surface temperature is 26.5 degrees , so the posidonia meadows are at the limit of their thermal resistance. From 28 degrees, the posidonia declines greatly,” explains Biel Jordà, oceanographer and member of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory on Climate Change (Lincc) of the UIB. Therefore, unless the current situation is completely reversed – which is highly unlikely – it is safe to say that the days of this emblematic marine plant are numbered on the coasts of Ibiza and Formentera. Scientists estimate that the surface temperature of the seawater will rise by 0.3 degrees per decade. At this rate, in just three decades it will increase by one degree and reach 28 degrees in half a century.

Changes in the sea

Will we have a future without posidonia? Jordà explains that “without a doubt” there will be an increase in sea temperature and that posidonia will experience critical circumstances, but he points out that beyond the scientific evidence, it is useless to make predictions: “Ecosystems are very complex. If the posidonia dies, another species could come and take its place, or not… We can formulate hypotheses, but nature has shown us that it is unpredictable”.

The posidonia meadows are now at the limit of their resistance and at 28 degrees they are already shrinking

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