September 11, 2019 — Climate change has made record-breaking heatwaves all the more likely, both on land and beneath the ocean’s surface. As the world’s ocean sucks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—as well as most of the additional heat being trapped by global warming—it is undergoing some significant changes.
Marine heatwaves—prolonged periods of unusually warm ocean temperatures—are one of those changes. These extreme temperatures are increasing in frequency around the globe and wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems.
As an oceanographer, I study the many ways oceans change—from week-to-week, year-to-year and, of course, over decades and centuries—to better understand the changes that are underway and the far-reaching impacts they may have on marine ecosystems and the communities that rely on them.