3 Together, climate-induced and non-climate drivers can mobilise toxins and contaminants in ways that harm human and marine species health  , and climate change is altering these relationships  . Under warming or ocean acidification, marine molluscs exposed to pharmaceuticals via wastewater experience more detrimental biological consequences or greater bioaccumulation  . Physical circulation, temperature and biogeochemical characteristics  control the ubiquitous oceanic distribution of methylmercury, and ocean acidification- and warming-driven changes in planktonic speciation and interactions can promote additional food- web bioaccumulation of methylmercury . Interactions among drivers also matter: temperature plus overfishing increased tissue methylmercury concentrations in Atlantic bluefin tuna from the 1970s to the 2000s more than the decreases in the late 1990s and 2000s from lower environmental mercury levels . This appears true for persistent organic pollutants as well, but their bioaccumulation is related more to temperature effects on animal behaviour than on pollutant dynamics . By 2100 under RCP8.5, productivity changes and community structure shifts are expected to increase methylmercury concentrations in polar oceans and high-latitude phytoplankton and decrease it in low latitudes . The estimated average global cost of mercury-related health effects by 2050, mainly from seafood consumption during 2010-2050, will be 19 trillion USD , assuming a 3% discount rate, if methylmercury emissions are not reduced .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report