As a result of the warming caused by climate change, the temperature of the seas has reached a new all-time high, which has serious repercussions for the state of the health of our planet.
As per the data collected by the European Union’s Copernicus climate change programme this week, the average daily worldwide sea surface temperature set a new high in 2016.
It was much warmer than usual for this time of year, reaching 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 degrees Fahrenheit).
The oceans play an important role in regulating the climate. They are responsible for driving weather patterns as well as soaking up heat and producing half of the oxygen that the planet needs.
Warmer oceans have a reduced capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, which means that a greater amount of the gas that warms the globe will remain in the atmosphere. In addition to this, it may hasten the melting of glaciers that feed into the ocean, which in turn leads to an increase in the height of the sea.
Oceans that are becoming hotter and heatwaves are causing marine life, including fish and whales, to shift around in search of cooler waters, which disrupts the food chain. The experts are concerned about the potential impact on the fish populations.
When temperatures grow too high, certain predatory species, such as sharks, might become hostile and disoriented, which can lead to violent behaviour.
According to Dr. Kathryn Lesneski, who is working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to monitor a marine heatwave in the Gulf of Mexico, “the water feels like a bath when you jump in.” In Florida, shallow reefs are suffering from extensive coral bleaching, and many of the affected corals have already perished.
According to Dr. Matt Frost, who works at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK, “humans are placing seas under greater stress than humans have done at any time in history.” Dr. Frost was speaking in reference to the fact that pollution and overfishing also affect the oceans.
A multiple line chart displaying the worldwide average sea surface temperature each year starting in 1979. The 2023 line has broken a record that was established in 2016, and it is now moving in an unseasonably higher direction.
The exact time of this broken record is causing concern among scientists.
According to Dr. Samantha Burgess, who works for the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the month of March ought to be when the waters all across the world are at their hottest, not August.
She adds, “The fact that we’ve seen the record now makes me anxious about how much warmer the water may become between now and next March.” “The fact that we’ve seen the record now makes me nervous about how much warmer the record was.”
According to Professor Mike Burrows, who is monitoring the effects of climate change on Scottish sea coasts as part of his work with the Scottish Association for Marine Science, “It is disheartening to see this shift occurring so fast.”
Earth is navigating unknown seas as temperature records continue to fall.
A fairly straightforward introduction to the topic of climate change
Researchers are trying to figure out why the oceans are so warm right now, but they believe that climate change is to blame since the seas are heating up because they are absorbing most of the heat from emissions of greenhouse gases.
According to Dr. Burgess, “the more we burn fossil fuels, the more extra heat will be absorbed out by the seas,” which implies that it will take longer to stabilise the oceans and bring them back to where they were before we started using fossil fuels.
The new record for annual average temperature is higher than the previous one, which was established in 2016, during a period in which the naturally occurring climatic fluctuation known as El Nio was at its strongest.
The phenomenon known as El Nio takes place when warm water off the west coast of South America rises to the surface, which causes an increase in the average temperature of the whole planet.
Scientists believe that a new El Nio has begun, but they believe that it is still rather mild. This indicates that it is likely that sea temperatures will continue to increase above normal over the next several months.
The chart below compares the seasonal average sea surface temperatures to the overall average. Conditions are regarded to be El Nino or La Nina when they are 0.5 degrees Celsius above or below the normal temperature. The month of May 2023 reveals the commencement of El Nino conditions.
After a string of maritime heatwaves this year, including those in the UK, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Gulf of Mexico, the previous record for highest temperature was finally beaten.
According to Professor Burgess, the maritime heatwaves that we are now seeing are occurring in strange regions where we haven’t anticipated them to occur.
According to the Met Office and the European Space Agency, water temperatures in the United Kingdom were between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius higher than typical in the month of June.
The temperatures at the sea’s surface in Florida reached 38.44 degrees Celsius (101 degrees Fahrenheit) the week before last, making them similar to a hot tub.
As for the following information,[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], typical temperature range should be between 23 degrees Celsius to 31 degrees Celsius.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change I came across it that the frequency of marine heatwaves increased by a factor of two between 1982 and 2016, as well as being more severe and lasting for longer periods of time since the 1980s.
The seas take longer to heat up, despite the fact that they have absorbed 90% of the warming that has resulted from greenhouse gas emissions. This is despite the fact that air temperatures have witnessed some major rises in recent years.
However, there are now indications that the temperatures of the oceans may be starting to catch up. According to Dr. Karina von Schuckmann of Mercator Ocean International, one notion is that a lot of the heat has been trapped in the ocean depths, and that it is now rising to the surface. This might perhaps be connected to El Nio.
Even while scientists have known for some time that greenhouse gas emissions will continue to cause the ocean surface to warm up, they are still trying to figure out precisely why temperatures have skyrocketed to such an extreme degree in comparison to past years.