The Southern (Antarctic) Ocean is our planet’s primary storage of heat and carbon, and it’s home to extraordinary life forms, from tiny algae and spineless creatures to penguins, seals and whales.
Hundreds of organizations are working around the world to restore damaged coral reefs. New research shows that rapid ocean warming threatens these efforts.
They’re more used to taking visitors to the reefs, but COVID-19 gave tour operators time to help check the condition of the corals. What they found doesn’t bode well.
Coral bleaching last summer was severe and widespread. And for the first time, severe bleaching has struck all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef.
A new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report makes clear human-induced climate change threatens the health and function of the ocean and cryosphere - the frozen regions of the Earth.
A healthy coral reef at Swains island, American Samoa.
NOAA/NMFS/PIFSC/CRED, Oceanography Team.
In a study that cultivated coral ‘gardens’ with varying numbers of species, plots with more species were healthier. This finding could inform strategies to help coral reefs survive climate change.
Climate change could further stress species such as Atlantic cod that already are threatened by overfishing.
Vladimir Wrangel/Shutterstock
Karin Limburg, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Tiny calcified formations inside fishes’ ears can be used to trace a fish’s life history – and potentially, how climate change has affected its growth and development.
A new study found shallow water corals with high temperature tolerance in their DNA. Could they make reefs more resilient to climate change?
Droplets rising from the Champagne vent on the ocean floor in the Mariana Islands. Fluids venting from the site contain dissolved carbon dioxide.
NOAA Ocean Explorer
Lowell D. Stott, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Thousands of years ago, carbon gases trapped on the seafloor escaped, causing drastic warming that helped end the last ice age. A scientist says climate change could cause this process to repeat.
Phytoplankton under a microscope.
Rattiya Thongdumhyu/Shutterstock
Phytoplankton are tiny, but they do important work.
Flood waters cover large tracts of land in Mozambique after cyclone Idai made landfall. Rapidly rising floodwaters have cut off thousands of families from aid organizations.
(World Food Programme via AP)
Craig Stevens, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and Ben Noll, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
Marine heatwaves may become the new normal for the Tasman Sea and the ocean around New Zealand, and oceanographers are developing models to better predict their intensity.
Fire danger conditions are worsening in many areas of Australia.
AAP Image/David Crosling
Australia is facing an increase in extreme heat, fire danger weather, floods and marine heatwaves, according to the latest biennial snapshot from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO.
Cairns has lots of hard grey infrastructure but much less green infrastructure that would reduce the impacts of the city’s growth.
Karine Dupré
Urbanisation is the main reason for rising temperatures and water pollution, but receives little attention in discussions about the health of water streams, reefs and oceans.
Many Caribbean reefs are now dominated by sponges.
from www.shutterstock.com
Marine sponges are ancient organisms that have survived mass extinctions. Many are more tolerant of climate change and may dominate over corals in future reef systems.
Some fish fared better than others amid the extreme temperatures of the 2016 heatwave.
Rick Stuart-Smith/Reef Life Survey
The 2016 heatwave that caused mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef didn’t just kill corals - it also significantly changed the makeup of fish communities that call these reefs home.