September 29, 2023
Feature Story
by Tara Malhotra
Marine animals are dying. Coral is bleached. Arctic ice is melting. Hurricane seasons are getting longer.
What is the culprit behind all of these devastating problems? The answer is rising ocean temperatures.
In July, the average ocean surface temperature around the world reached a record-breaking number of 69.73 degrees Fahrenheit (20.96 degrees Celsius). Cable News Network (CNN) found that this temperature beat the globally projected values from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The New York Times wrote that the oceans are heating 40 percent quicker than estimates predicted by the United Nations. In other words, the ocean is warming at a rate faster than ever before and shows no signs of slowing down.
Kaitlin Naughten, an oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey, expressed her concern for the unsustainable rising sea temperatures and levels.
“It’s clear that current sea surface temperatures are exceptionally and unseasonably warm. We can expect temperatures like this to happen more and more frequently in the future. A warm sea surface has wide-ranging implications, especially for complex ecosystems such as coral reefs,” Naughten said.
Ocean warming is primarily caused by climate change. As more greenhouse gases are emitted (from sources like the burning of fossil fuels), they get stuck in the atmosphere and absorb more heat from the Sun. This makes ocean surface temperatures increase and sea levels rise since the ocean absorbs 90 percent of extra global warming heat, according to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). However, the effects of climate change do not stop there. CNN reported that oceans typically help prevent Earth from absorbing heat, but the current hotter seas are not as successful at completing this task. This results in more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases being left in the atmosphere, continuing the vicious cycle of climate change and its repercussions.
These marine heat waves damage oceanic ecosystems by changing temperature and water patterns. For example, coral reefs—which help defend coastlines, provide food, and create jobs for people—undergo a weakening relationship with their necessary algae when the reefs experience high temperatures. This process bleaches and can kill the coral due to a food shortage from the lack of algae. Another example is fish: when oceans get hotter, it is vital for fish to have more oxygen due to a higher metabolic rate. But, hotter water has less oxygen than colder water, causing the fish to breathe intensely before dying.
To prevent these situations, the current United Nations goal is to restrict the average ocean surface temperature increase to under 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) through burning less fossil fuels, creating marine protected areas, and enforcing fishing limits. By igniting less fossil fuels, there will be a decrease in the subsequent greenhouse gas emissions that directly cause hotter oceans. Furthermore, marine protected areas will not only preserve existing ecosystems but will also repair surrounding oceanic ecosystems that rely on their surroundings for support. Lastly, enforced fishing rules aim to prevent overfishing, which would lead to the depopulation of marine life and the destruction of oceanic environments that functioned as a web including fish.
As ocean temperatures and levels continue to escalate, there are many questions to be considered. Will society cut back on fossil fuel burning to lower ocean temperatures? How will the proposed marine solutions from scientists develop and function with regard to achieving their goals? Will this issue be fixed before countless other ecosystems and animals are killed from hot temperatures?
The impact of rising ocean temperatures. Illustration created by me, Tara Malhotra.
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