Dossier: warm sea and ocean water
Global warming dominates global news. Here, rising atmospheric temperatures are usually the common thread. But of all the extra heat trapped by our greenhouse gas emissions, only 1 per cent remains in the air. The vast majority (89 per cent) disappears into the water of the world's oceans. The rest is locked up in land (6 per cent) and melting ice sheets (4 per cent). The result: warmer ocean water and more marine heat waves!
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In this dossier, we highlight the different sides of all that warming seawater. The enormous amount of stored energy is influencing the weather. More precipitation is created by more evaporated water. And hurricanes also draw their energy from the warm ocean water.
Changes are also visible in biodiversity. Coral reefs and shellfish are getting above their critical temperature and die in more and more places. With this, their function as nurseries of marine biodiversity is also disappearing.
A changing distribution of heat in ocean water also affects currents. Ocean water flows because of wind, temperature and the difference in density of fresh meltwater or salty ocean water. More warm water at the surface, shifts these forces. The consequences of this are still far from clear.
Warm water is also affecting our own North Sea and Wadden Sea. More and more often, shellfish die in summer on the warm mudflats. But there are winners alongside the losers. Whereas a fish species like cod finds it too warm in our Wadden Sea, sea bass and mullet feel at home in higher temperatures, and we are seeing more and more of them.
This dossier offers links to the researchers who study the warming of seawater in their own research field, to solid scientific articles they have written and relevant media appearances.