Ocean temperatures have warmed „insanely,” Especially in the Atlantic, are close to making the current global coral bleaching event the worst in history. It’s so bad that scientists expect some hurricanes to cool off.
More than three-fifths – 62.9% – of the world’s coral reefs are badly affected by the ongoing bleaching event that began last year. It approached a record high of 65.7% in 2017, and one-seventh of the world’s corals died from 2009 to 2017, said Derek Manzello, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Coral Reef Monitoring Project.
When the water gets too warm, the organisms, such as coral, bleach and sometimes die.
In the Atlantic, along the Florida coast and in the Caribbean, 99.7% of coral reefs have suffered „very, very severe” losses in staghorn and elk species, Manzello said Thursday at NOAA’s monthly climate conference. Sixty-two countries are looking at damaged coral, and Thailand has closed an island full of tourists to try to save the coral there.
Manzello said La Niña — a natural cooling of the Pacific that changes weather globally — is forecast to develop soon and cool the oceans a bit, but it may be too little too late.
„I’m still very concerned about the state of the world’s coral reefs because we’re seeing very unexpected and extreme things at play right now,” Moncello said.
„It wouldn’t happen without it Climate change. „That’s the cornerstone of all the ocean warming we’re seeing,” Manzello said. But on top of that are changes in El Niño, the reversal of La Niña and the natural warming of ocean water; reduced sulfur pollution from ships and undersea volcanic eruptions.
„The acceleration of global warming is now hard to deny,” former NASA climate scientist James Hansen said in a new analysis and report Thursday.
For coral, Manzello said, how warm the water is and „things have gotten crazy with ocean temperatures in the last year.” He said hurricanes would benefit by bringing up cold water from the depths and not hitting coral reefs directly.
„Hurricanes can be devastating to reefs,” Moncello. „But given the current situation we’re in on Earth, in the grand scheme of things, they’re a good thing right now, and it’s kind of mind-blowing.”
On Wednesday, parts of the Atlantic where hurricanes often form had ocean heat content — a measure of how warm the water is at depth — Equivalent to mid-Augustsaid hurricane researchers Brian McNoldy at the University of Miami and Bill Klotzbach at Colorado State University.
The world’s oceans broke the record for warmest April last month. It’s the 13th consecutive month global oceans have broken records, and as oceans slowly cool or warm, higher records are likely, said Karin Gleason, NOAA’s head of climate monitoring.
Coral reefs are important for seafood production and tourism worldwide. Scientific reports have long attributed the loss of coral One of the main points of future warming The world is approaching 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times. This is the limit that both countries agreed to adhere to in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
„This is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet,” said biological oceanographer Andrew Pershing, the climate center’s vice president for science. „It’s an ecosystem that we’re really going to see disappear in our lifetime.”
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