From rising ocean temperatures to overfishing, what are the biggest dangers facing coral reefs today?
Japan's biggest coral reef is facing disaster
from rising ocean temperature with the bulk of it having gone dead due to coral bleaching.
Not exact matches
Trump's stance on the environment contradicts thousands of scientists and decades of research, which has linked many observable changes in climate, including
rising air and
ocean temperatures, shrinking glaciers, and widespread melting of snow and ice, to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions
from human activities.
Evidence
from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows that global sea levels in the last two decades are
rising dramatically as surface
temperatures warm
oceans and...
The recent hurricanes presented a rare opportunity for Lasker and Edmunds to study how corals recover
from disasters — an important line of research in a warming world where
rising ocean temperatures are stressing reefs.
New research
from the University of East Anglia shows that
rising ocean temperatures will upset natural cycles of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus.
In an unprecedented evolution experiment scientists
from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for
Ocean Research Kiel and the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries have demonstrated for the first time, that the single most important calcifying algae of the world's oceans, Emiliania huxleyi, can adapt simultaneously to ocean acidification and rising water temperat
Ocean Research Kiel and the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries have demonstrated for the first time, that the single most important calcifying algae of the world's
oceans, Emiliania huxleyi, can adapt simultaneously to
ocean acidification and rising water temperat
ocean acidification and
rising water
temperatures.
The
rising temperatures cause layers of
ocean water to stratify so the more oxygen - rich surface waters are less able to mix with oxygen - poor waters
from the deeper
ocean.
«When we included projected Antarctic wind shifts in a detailed global
ocean model, we found water up to 4 °C warmer than current
temperatures rose up to meet the base of the Antarctic ice shelves,» said lead author Dr Paul Spence
from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS).
However, when
temperatures warm over the Antarctic regions, deep waters
rise from the floor of the
ocean much closer to the continent.
This interplay between climate and wind can lead to sea level
rise simply by moving water
from one place in the
ocean to another, said Greene — no warming of the air, or of
ocean temperatures required.
Ocean scientist James McCarthy of Harvard University discussed recent evidence
from the
oceans that climate change is occurring, including
rising water
temperatures.
Vineyards planted at higher altitudes or near the
ocean — such as those in Oregon and Washington and in Argentina's Mendoza Province — will be less affected by
rising temperatures and may continue to benefit
from the warming trend.
The El Niño Southern Oscillation is a natural fluctuation of
ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific that can give
rise to El Niño and La Niña, which drive droughts and floods
from South East Asia and Australia to the Americas.
The first image, based on data
from January 1997 when El Nio was still strengthening shows a sea level
rise along the Equator in the eastern Pacific
Ocean of up to 34 centimeters with the red colors indicating an associated change in sea surface
temperature of up to 5.4 degrees C.
New findings link
rising ocean temperatures off the northern coast of Brazil to changing weather patterns: As the Atlantic warms, it draws moisture away
from the forest, priming the region for bigger fires.
Linsley said the new results were «exciting,» suggesting that the «poorly understood, rapid
rise» in surface
temperature from 1910 to 1940 was, in part, «related to changes in trade wind strength and heat release
from the upper water column» of the Pacific
Ocean.
Any reforms to come
from the process, starting next week, would affect about 62 percent of New York state's population, the proportion estimated to reside now in areas that could be hard hit as
rising land and
ocean temperatures raise average sea levels around the globe.
The research also supports a theory that a parallel pause in air
temperature rise in recent years may result
from storage of heat in the deep
ocean.
Studying an Indian
Ocean paradise is helping to reveal which animals living on low - lying islands are at risk
from rising temperatures.
Sea level
rise has two primary components: the expansion in volume of seawater with increased
temperature and the addition of water in
ocean basins
from the melting of land - locked ice, including Antarctica and Greenland.
Increased
ocean temperatures also make the waters more stratified — preventing nutrient - rich water
from below
from rising to the surface and oxygen - rich water
from reaching the middle layers.
Meanwhile, as
oceans heat up, thermal expansion causes sea levels that are already
rising from the melting of land ice (triggered by higher air and sea
temperatures) to
rise even more.
But then the effective heat capacity, the surface
temperature, depends on the rate of mixing of the
ocean water and I have presented evidence
from a number of different ways that models tend to be too diffusive because of numerical reasons and coarse resolution and wave parameter
rise, motions in the
ocean.
The Fourth Assessment Report finds that «Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident
from observations of increases in global average air and
ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and
rising mean sea level.
The symptoms
from those events (huge and rapid carbon emissions, a big rapid jump in global
temperatures,
rising sea levels,
ocean acidification, widespread oxygen - starved zones in the
oceans) are all happening today with human - caused climate change.
In an experiment with organisms
from the Kiel Fjord, a team of biologists
from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for
Ocean Research Kiel demonstrated for the first time, that ocean acidification and rising water temperatures harms the fatty acid composition of copepods in the natural plankton commu
Ocean Research Kiel demonstrated for the first time, that
ocean acidification and rising water temperatures harms the fatty acid composition of copepods in the natural plankton commu
ocean acidification and
rising water
temperatures harms the fatty acid composition of copepods in the natural plankton community.
As
ocean temperatures rise, coral reefs around the world have been heavily impacted
from mass bleaching events and World Heritage - listed reefs are no exception.
As the deep
ocean keeps surface
temperatures from rising, the equilibrium would still be unattained.
How does society, as it stands now, not understand that they have locked into the system already a
rise to the high 500's ppm, and, in my humble opinion, the low 600's are NOT out of the question.To me this is just as much of a tragedy if it takes place 250 years
from now as it is if it takes only 100 years.In the end, the seventh generation is screwed by a huge loss of fresh water, a huge increase in
temperature, an
ocean that no longer produces even one tenth of its total protein and carboydrate output as it did in the 1800's.
Rising temperatures will cause outgassing of CO2
from the
oceans, but its C12 / C13 ratio will be that of the atmosphere when sinking thermohaline circulation took the CO2
from the atmosphere ~ 1600 years ago, which is different
from fossil fuels.
I particularly enjoyed the slides that, when combined (1) provided an overview of hotter and cooler CO2 molecules as it relates to how they are seen
from outer space and
from profile — because this will make it easier for me to explain this process to others; (2) walked through the volcanic and solar activity vs assigning importance to CO2 changes — because this another way to help make it clearer, too, but in another way; (3) discussed CO2 induced warming and
ocean rise vs different choices we might make — because this helps point out why every day's delay matters; and (4) showed Figure 1
from William Nordhaus» «Strategies for Control of Carbon Dioxide» and then super-imposed upon that the global mean
temperature in colors showing pre-paper and post-paper periods — because this helps to show just how far back it was possible to make reasoned projections without the aid of a more nuanced and modern understanding.
Moreover, the
ocean (which has been responsible for absorbing as much as 80 % of anthropogenic emissions) can become saturated, or as
temperatures rise in the temperate regions or winds increase in arctic regions and stir up carbon dioxide
from below, act as an emitter.
But if something causes heat to be transferred
from the
ocean surface into its deeps more rapidly than usual,
ocean surface
temperatures could
rise more slowly, not
rise at all, or even fall despite the increased backradiation.
Steric sea level is driven by volume changes through
ocean salinity (halosteric) and
ocean temperature (thermosteric) effects,
from which the latter is known to play a dominant role in observed contemporary
rise of GSSL.
And it comes
from Emanuel I believe, which is to say the Pacific and Indian
Oceans are already warmer, thus this is an opening in the natural system that needs to catch up given the
rising global mean
temperature.
Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident
from observations of increases in global average air and
ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and
rising global average sea level.
How long will it be before methane emissions reach a critical mass and, with help
from the thermal energy of the Arctic
Ocean, create a cascade of rapidly thawing permafrost and
rising temperature?
So, although each molecule of CO2 that escapes
from the
oceans will, on average, be back in the
ocean again in five years time, if the sea surface
temperature rises the increase in the atmospheric CO2 will remain.
As
rising air
temperatures heat up the
ocean's surface, this water becomes less dense and separates
from the cold dense layer below, which is full of nutrients.
The cause of this
temperature rise is still disputed by scientists, but research suggests the natural release of large stores of CO2
from the world's
oceans may have played a role.
We see a
rising atmospheric
temperature with a superimposed sinusoid
from the
oceans.
Similarly, if there is an increase in the difference between land and
ocean temperatures, the
rising air over land draws in moist air
from the
ocean and lifts it, leading to monsoons.
The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, examined the impacts of
rising ocean temperatures, changes in salinity and currents resulting
from a warming climate.
Hansen got the warming right in the 1980s, the hockey stick is validated by numerous oth alternative research methods and
ocean heat content and arctic ice continue to
rise and shrink as predicted
from the understanding of the physical effect of CO2, as have air
temperatures in the area.
This is not the case in the Arctic where loss of ice
from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) and Canadian Islands is caused by
rising atmospheric
temperature and a warming Arctic
ocean.
The symptoms
from those events (a big, rapid jump in global
temperatures,
rising sea levels, and
ocean acidification) are all happening today with human - caused climate change.
Because 5 gazillion Joules is a 0.2 C mixed layer (top ~ 300 meters) surface
temperature rise (Figure 10, Historical
ocean heat content calculated
from HadSST and OHC, Levitus, 2009).
Besides these thousands of thermometer readings
from weather stations around the world, there are many other clear indicators of global warming such as
rising ocean temperatures, sea level, and atmospheric humidity, and declining snow cover, glacier mass, and sea ice.
The immediate cause is clear: the ongoing
rise in global
ocean temperatures that comes
from climate change.