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Abstract
Climate change is expected to warm, deoxygenate, and acidify ocean waters in the future. However, nearshore ecosystems are affected by a range of processes such as tides, local winds, internal and surface waves, that cause variability in climate stressors that can be greater than the change predicted by global climate models. A 2D implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) to downscale global climate predictions to the scale of a local reef for all Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. I found that exposure to climate stressors (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen) increases as carbon emissions pathways increase as expected. Significant exposure is generally not expected until RCP 4.5 or greater for temperature and pH, while oxygen exposure is already occurring. Observed variability also is expected to increase in future climate scenarios and may act as a mitigating factor in the future.