Latest news with #oceanwarming
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A Mysterious Blob of Cold Water Defies Ocean Heat – Now We Know Why
Over the last decade, Earth's oceans have been warming at unprecedented rates, yet one mysterious blob of water, just south of Greenland, has defied this trend. It has stubbornly remained colder than its surrounding waters for over a century now. "People have been asking why this cold spot exists," says University of California Riverside climate scientist Wei Liu. To find out, Liu and oceanographer Kai-Yuan Li analyzed a century's worth of temperature and salinity data. They found this mysterious cool patch wasn't limited to the ocean surface, but extended 3,000 meters (around 9,840 feet) deep. And only one scenario they explored could explain both sets of data. It's the same scenario researchers have been warning the world about for years now: one of Earth's major ocean circulation systems, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is slowing down. Related: "If you look at the observations and compare them with all the simulations, only the weakened-AMOC scenario reproduces the cooling in this one region," explains Li. If the AMOC stalls, it will disrupt monsoon seasons in the tropics, and North America and Europe will experience even harsher winters. The knock-on effects will severely impact entire ecosystems and global food security. The AMOC is a large heat- and salt-driven system of ocean currents that sweeps warm salty water northward. This water cools on its wending journey north, which makes it denser. As the cooler water sinks, water from other oceans is pulled in to fill the surface, driving the cooler water back down south again. With increasing contributions of freshwater from climate change-driven glacier melt, concentrations of salt in the sea water drop, and the water becomes less dense, disrupting the sinking-with-cooling process and weakening the entire physical cycle. That's exactly what the sea surface salinity records showed. Li and Liu found the odd cold spot in the north, near the melting glaciers, had decreasing levels of salinity. Near the equator, however, salinity had increased as the weaker currents failed to stir things up as forcefully. All up, the researchers calculated AMOC has slowed from -1.01 to -2.97 million cubic meters of water per second between 1900 to 2005. "This work shows the AMOC has been weakening for more than a century, and that trend is likely to continue if greenhouse gases keep rising," Li concludes. This research was published in Communications Earth & Environment. Scientists Discover 'Goblin Prince' That Roamed With Dinosaurs Ancient Blueprint For Human Bodies Discovered in Sea Anemones Spider With No Venom Has a Deadly Trick to Poison Its Prey
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
‘Super corals' and supplements: Inside the lab trying to save the Great Barrier Reef
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet and home to a vast array of species. But in recent years it has been hit by a series of devastating mass bleaching events, turning the vibrant colors of parts of the reef a bright white. Across the world, corals are suffering a similar fate, with more than 80% of the ocean's reefs hit by an ongoing global bleaching event that began in 2023, due to record high marine temperatures. Bleaching can be deadly, as the corals are depleted of the algae that live inside them and act as a food source. The effects can be catastrophic; while coral reefs occupy just 0.01% of the ocean floor, they support a quarter of all marine life, as well as providing people with food and livelihoods, and helping to reduce storm surge and protect against erosion. At the UN Ocean Conference this month, 11 countries signed a pledge to protect climate-resilient reefs, and, separately, governments and partners pledged $25 million to a global fund for coral reefs. Ultimately, if coral reefs are to be saved, efforts to curb ocean warming by reducing carbon emissions need to be stepped up, but scientists are also searching for other solutions to keep coral reefs alive in a warming world. At the University of Technology Sydney, scientists from the Future Reefs team are searching for 'super corals' — species that are naturally more resilient to environmental changes, such as high temperatures, acidity or low oxygen levels. One of the program's goals is to identify these corals, discover what methods they are using to survive, and use them as a blueprint to support other corals in the harsher environments of the future. 'We have a focus on trying to understand reef resilience in a changing environment,' says Dr. Emma Camp, marine biologist and leader of the Future Reefs team. 'How do we build coral resilience to survive the stresses they're going to inevitably face? But also, how can we as humans use technology and science to support corals to make them more resilient?' Camp first discovered 'super coral' species growing in mangrove lagoons, which are naturally hot and acidic. Since then, she says the team has found up to 40 of these hardy species growing in different environments across the globe. Now, their focus is on finding them within the Great Barrier Reef. '(We want) to identify coral species with greater heat tolerance, but that are still able to maintain other traits that are really critical: we want them to be fast growers, we want them to provide good habitat for other organisms living on the reef,' says Christine Roper, a postdoctoral researcher on the team. During expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef, the team collects and analyzes specific coral species. They carry out real-time heat tolerance testing on the samples using a special phenotyping machine that helps to predict which coral has the best chance of survival as water temperatures rise. They also take fragments of coral back to the lab, where they can extract DNA and conduct more extensive tests. Once they've identified a stress-tolerant species, the Coral Nurture Program — a project co-founded by Camp that works with local tourism operators and indigenous communities to replant corals at scale — propagates it on coral nurseries which they have established at different locations across the Great Barrier Reef, before 'outplanting' them on the reef to help restore areas that have been affected by bleaching. Since the program's inception in 2018, over 125,000 corals have been outplanted across the Great Barrier Reef — off Cairns, Port Douglas and the Whitsundays — with a survival rate of 85%. But restoring areas of the Great Barrier Reef is no easy task. It has almost 3,000 individual reefs and covers 344,400 square kilometers (133,000 square miles), and as of April 2024, as much as 60% of its reefs had recently been exposed to potential bleaching. The team is hopeful that areas where outplanting has taken place are already showing visible signs of recovery. Other labs around the world are developing similar solutions, also with promising results. The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has been using artificial selection and selective breeding to grow heat-tolerant corals, reporting that genetic interventions can work, but with varying success between species. The UK's University of Newcastle has also selectively bred corals that it says can better survive marine heatwaves, although it is yet to conduct large-scale trials in the wild. Studies have shown that traditional coral restoration efforts can be undone within a few years if there is a bleaching event, but by planting heat-resilient corals the Coral Nurture Program hopes the restoration will be able to withstand future events. 'By focusing our efforts on identifying and increasing the abundance of heat-tolerant corals in the population, we optimize our efforts by ensuring those populations will be more resilient to future heat stress events,' says Roper. The major challenge — be it with naturally or selectively bred corals — is how to scale up the process of planting, which is labor-intensive and costly, requiring people to dive down to the reef and plant the corals by hand. That's why the focus of the Coral Nurture Program has been to engage tourism operators and local communities. 'We can build scale by having pockets of communities undertaking these actions,' says Camp. It collaborates with seven tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef, including Wavelength Reef Cruises, so that snorkelling trips to the reef paid for by tourists double up as outplanting expeditions. On these trips, members of the crew — who are all trained divers and marine biologists — outplant coral, tend to nurseries and conduct surveys of the area. The team at Wavelength helped to establish the program with Camp and has also been integral in operating coral nurseries along the reef and collecting data on coral health. Even so, there is a limit to how much can be achieved just through outplanting tough coral species. The Future Reefs team is also exploring other solutions, including whether feeding corals different food or vitamins could change their heat tolerance. Corals feed by extending tentacles out from their body to catch microscopic food particles. Past research has shown that feeding corals zooplankton — tiny animals that float near the surface of the water — after a bleaching event can help to boost resilience, as can growing corals on substrates infused with metal nutrients such as manganese and zinc. But such methods have not yet been tried on a large scale. 'Despite knowing a lot about corals, we know relatively little about coral nutrition,' says Camp. 'This, to me, is an area where research and science can really help us advance restoration practice by understanding more about what the corals fundamentally need to survive through stress.' Though in its early stages, the team back in the laboratory in Sydney has experimented with feeding corals foods such as microscopic brine shrimp fed with different types of algae, and adding certain metals or vitamins to the water that the corals will absorb. The goal is to develop a supplement that could give corals extra nutrients when stressed, helping them survive or recover from mass bleaching events. 'It's like us as humans: when we are run down, we might take a supplement to give us a boost. It's the same with the corals,' says Camp, adding that this kind of solution would potentially be easy to scale and apply to reefs globally. 'It's these sorts of new ideas that we have to explore, and nothing can be off the table, because if we don't do something, the end result is going to be a loss of reefs around the world,' she says. While hopeful that scientific innovation and scalable solutions can provide some sort of stopgap for coral reefs, Camp warns that protecting them long-term comes down to tackling the cause of mass coral bleaching, which means reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating global warming. 'There's only so much we can do to buy time for the reef,' she says. 'We have to tackle climate change, because if the temperatures keep increasing, we're going to be asking too much of the corals to survive through the environment that they're being faced with.'
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Sharks and oysters will be more common in warmer UK waters say scientists
Could the UK start to see more sharks in its seas?Well, scientists say that endangered sharks, rays and oysters are just some of the species that could increase their numbers around the UK waters as ocean temperatures rise. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) looked at how 19 threatened marine species will respond to the change in UK seas by says many creatures could find new homes in parts of the North Sea predicted to become biodiversity hotspots in the next 50 years, but other species would struggle to adapt, researchers found. According to experts, oceans across the world have reached record temperatures in the last few world's oceans are warming as they have absorbed up to 90% of the additional heating created when humans burn fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas, explained BBC climate reporter Georgina UK seas are among 20 places globally that have warmed fastest over the past 50 years, she analysis aims to guide the government as it plans how to ensure so-called Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) continue to protect species even as they change habitat. This study, published in the journal Marine Biology, looked at more species that could flourish. Spurdog sharks, basking sharks and thornbacks - a type of ray with spines and oysters were all predicted to do well. But a type of clam that can live more than 500 years, was predicted to struggle in a warmer climate. And a small creature called a sea pen, which helps to build reefs, could lose up to 40% of their suitable habitat with 75 years. The loss of creatures like this could have a knock-on effect on food chains and eco-systems. Scientists also warned that in order for the creatures do well, people will need to do their part to look after the John Pinnegar, Principal Scientist and Lead Advisor on climate change at Cefas said: "The seas still need to be managed carefully and other pressures reduced if the creatures are to thrive in new habitats," he said.
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
More sharks are expected in UK waters. Here's why
A new study by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) predicts that rising ocean temperatures will cause shifts in marine species distribution around the UK by 2060. The study, published in Marine Biology, indicates that some species like oysters, basking sharks, and thornbacks will thrive in warmer waters. Others, such as ocean quahogs and sea pens, are expected to struggle. The North Sea is warming rapidly, becoming one of the top 20 fastest-warming areas globally, with May seeing UK waters up to four degrees warmer. Marine scientist Bryony Townhill of Cefas notes the significant impact of these changes on the UK, given its reliance on the sea for food and jobs.
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
UK to see increase in sharks, rays and native oysters due to rising sea temperatures
Rising ocean temperatures could see animals such as endangered sharks and native oysters migrate to the UK. Parts of the North Sea could become biodiversity hotspots in the next 50 years, as the water around the UK becomes one of the top 20 places globally that has warmed the fastest due to the impact of climate change. It comes after an intense heatwave in May warmed UK waters by up to four degrees, while fishing communities have already spotted a difference as swarms of jellyfish or the Mediterranean octopus begin to appear near beaches. In the first study of its kind, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) mapped how 19 threatened marine species will respond to the change in UK seas by 2060. While oysters, basking sharks, spurdog sharks and thornbacks - a type of ray with spines - will thrive, other animals such as the long-lasting ocean quahog, a type of clam, will struggle. A sea pen, which is a small creature that helps build reefs, is predicted to lose up to 40 per cent of their suitable habitat by the turn of the next century, which will have an impact on marine ecosystems. It is not only the UK's seas that are warming, with temperatures increasing across the globe as the ocean absorbs 90 per cent of heating created by fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. "As an island nation, we're hugely reliant on the sea for our food and for jobs. Any changes that we see in our seas are particularly impactful," Bryony Townhill, marine scientist at Cefas, told BBC News. The analysis, which has been published in the science journal Marine Biology, should assist the government as it plans to ensure that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) continue to protect species. Researchers however have stressed that these vulnerable species must still be protected from risks such as pollution and fishing equipment as they adapt to new habitats.
