The study, published in PLOS Climate, concluded that increases in ocean surface temperatures caused by climate change are now permanent, with ocean temperatures rising every year. This threatens key marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, kelp fields and kelp forests – the loss of these ecosystems can lead to an imbalance in human life, writes The Hill.
“Climate change is not an event of the future. The reality is that it has affected the world and continues to do so. Our study shows that over the past seven years, more than half of the ocean has broken records for temperature increase,” Kyle Van Houtan, who led the research team of scientists, said in a statement.
A new study shows that most of the world’s ocean surface has reached historical highs annually since 2014.
Researchers from the California Oceanarium compiled a 150-year map of sea surface temperatures to determine trends in global ocean surface temperature extremes, as well as their frequency.
In 2014, most of the ocean surface exceeded the historical maximum temperature. By 2019, nearly 57 percent of the ocean had suffered from high water temperatures. By comparison, only 2 percent of the ocean’s surface had similar thermals at the end of the 19th century.
