There’s really not a lot of good news when it comes to the health of the Earth and the climate these days.
And if you’re looking to the oceans for signs of hope and health, well…you’re going to be disappointed.
New research, published in AGU Advances, describes how the “triple threat” of extreme heat, acidification, and deoxygenation are pushing oceans to the brink.
Climate scientist Andrea Dutton, who was not involved in the study, says it’s still not too late, but these findings are very similar to the ones that would have come before previous mass extinctions.
“If you look at the fossil record you can see there was this same pattern at the end of the Permian, where two-thirds of marine genera became extinct. We don’t have identical conditions to that now, but it’s worth pointing out that the environmental changes going on ar similar.”
That said, the combination of these three factors is nothing less than catastrophic. Together, they cause column-compound extreme events, which result in an uninhabitable ocean.
The research focused on how the top one-thousand feet of the ocean are being affected, finding that this combination of events already threatens up to 20% of the global ocean volume.
The North pacific and the tropics are the hardest hit at the moment, but with events getting more and more extreme and lasting longer, the effects will almost certainly spread.
“The impacts of this have already been seen and felt. Intense extreme events like these are likely to happen again in the future and will disrupt marine ecosystems and fisheries around the world.”
Oceans absorb greenhouse gas and keep it out of the atmosphere, but as this burden grows and grows, scientists can see how it is taking its toll.
The inundated seawater becomes acidic and crowds out oxygen molecules, both of which damage marine life.
Rising global temperatures but marine biomes under a lot of stress, and it’s clear that the limit for what the oceans can handle is fast approaching.
The alarm bells are ringing.
And they’re not getting any quieter.
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