In 2022, the Earth’s oceans set a new heat record, surpassing the record set in 2021. Warming oceans have many consequences, from an increase in extreme weather events to the disappearance of some marine life that cannot survive in increasingly warmer waters.

Since 1958, a lot of data on ocean water temperature has been obtained, and it can be concluded that the temperature began to rise rapidly after 1990 and without precedent in the last five years. Some experts believe that the oceans have not been as warm as they are now in the last 1,000 years.

As for air temperature, we are used to reading that last year was “the warmest on record.” Everything is more difficult with the temperature of ocean water also because its temperature changes more slowly and much less than the temperature of the air. The fact that the oceans are setting new heat records means that unprecedented changes are taking place.

The oceans, containing a huge amount of water, absorb an extraordinary amount of heat and from year to year manage to set new records, and here human activity has a heavy say. Researchers say this data on rising ocean temperatures is the best way to show how global warming is manifesting itself.

Weather is strongly influenced by the temperature of the water in the oceans, and if the oceans are warmer, more extreme weather events such as storms or hurricanes occur. If there is more moisture in the atmosphere, precipitation will be more intense, and the possibility of severe flooding in some coastal areas increases.

If the oceans are warmer, there is an increased chance of record-breaking extreme precipitation, as happened last year in Europe.

Ocean salinity has increased, as has stratification, meaning that warmer surface water mixes with cooler (and nutrient-rich) deep water, and the surface layer absorbs less CO2 from the atmosphere.

Much warmer waters mean that fragile marine ecosystems such as coral reefs are at great risk.

Another threat to ocean organisms is that warmer waters cannot hold as much oxygen, and areas of lower concentrations occur.

Although the warming of ocean waters is happening all over the world, there are also areas where it is more pronounced, such as the Atlantic region off the coast of the United States.

The study was published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences under the title Another year of record heat for the oceans.

Sources: Guardian, Washington Post

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