Erica Nielsen, University of California, Davis et Sam Walkes, University of California, Davis
The Blob, a long-lasting mass of warm water, sat off the Pacific coast of North America for years, bringing new species to formerly cold waters. What allows some to survive while others fade away?
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.
Academic research can shed light on crucial questions about what life on Earth will be like under the most plausible emissions scenarios. And a warning: the answers are confronting.
Australia may warm by 4°C or more this century, the IPCC has found. As these IPCC authors explain, there is no going back from some changes in the climate system.
During a 2015 heat wave, scientists watched as a coral reef died before their eyes. By the end of the century, almost all the world’s corals will be gone if climate change continues at this pace.
Researchers found 16% of coral species have not been seen for many years. This finding is alarming, because local extinctions suggest global extinctions may be looming.
One cold winter doesn’t negate more than a century of global warming. We need the political leadership to set the world on a safer path. Ill-informed tweets by government senators won’t help.
As the planet continues to warm, extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall are becoming more frequent, intense and longer, according to global weather data.
Dan Smale, Marine Biological Association et Thomas Wernberg, The University of Western Australia
Marine heatwaves, like their land counterparts, are growing hotter and longer. Sea species in southeastern Australia, southeast Asia, northwestern Africa, Europe and eastern Canada are most at risk.
Everyone knows the Great Barrier Reef is in peril. But a continent away, Western Australia’s Shark Bay is also threatened by marine heatwaves that could alter this World Heritage ecosystem forever.