New research shows climate change can drive sudden ocean cooling too. This can have devastating effects on marine life such as bull sharks and manta rays.
Road collapse in northern Kenya due to flash floods on 22 November 2023.
Photo by Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images
The Great Barrier Reef is facing its worst summer of sustained heat stress since the mass bleaching event of 1998, but now with less time to recover amid repeated brutal conditions.
Storm Ciarán pounded England’s Newhaven Lighthouse and harbor wall on Nov. 4, 2023.
AP Photo/Kin Cheung
The same instruments used to measure earthquakes pick up vibrations as ocean waves put pressure on the sea floor. Four decades of data tell a story about ocean storms.
A climate overshoot that creates warmer oceans with lower oxygen levels will reduce the suitable habitat for many marine species long after CO₂ levels have peaked and declined.
Both the abundance and the diversity of jellyfish around the UK may be on the rise.
Helmut Corneli / Alamy Stock Photo
Over the past three years, Earth’s climate system has accumulated an average of 11 Hiroshima bombs’ worth of excess energy per second. And it’s showing in the current surge in ocean temperature.
New research has unravelled the mystery of why sea sponges die when the water gets too warm. The cause of death appears to be the sudden loss of microbes that usually act to detoxify sponge tissue.
Warm water along the equator off South America signals an El Niño, like this one in 2016.
NOAA
We know the oceans are warming, but we have fewer measurements in coastal waters where most fisheries and aquaculture operate. Now the fishing industry is helping scientists to track the changes.
The West African coastline is a source of livelihood for millions.
Wikimedia Commons/Paul Walter
The meteorologist leading NOAA’s 2022 hurricane field program describes flying through eyewalls and the technology in these airborne labs for tracking rapid intensification in real time.
An underwater forest formed by the purple gorgonian (Paramuricea clavata) off Marseille at a depth of 60 metres.
Romain Bricoult / CC BY-NC-ND
The oceans around New Zealand are warming faster in winter than in summer. During the winter of 2021, most coastal areas were warmer than usual, and this is likely to bring more storms during summer.
Tom Womack, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand’s conservation needs to consider the long-term impact of climate change and focus not only on protecting native species but on preserving ecological richness.