Ocean temperature is on the rise, and disruption of large ocean currents is imminent

More than 90 percent of the extra energy left in the atmosphere due to greenhouse gases ends up in the sea. There, warming has dramatic consequences: warmer waters cause stronger storms and a larger expansion of the sea.

Since the 1990s, ocean heat content has risen sharply, according to figures from two scientific teams, from China and the United States, announced Wed. The sea is also being disturbed in other ways: for example, the oceans are becoming more and more broken into separate layers, causing temperatures a few kilometers higher than seawater to rise strongly.

ocean current disturbances

In addition, saline areas became more salty and less salty, the Chinese research team said. This could have consequences for the species that live there and therefore have an impact on fisheries, among other things. Another problem is that large ocean currents can get disrupted. These now provide, for example, Europe’s heat supply.

A zeta joule is about a trillion joules, the measure of energy. The amount of energy that is added annually to the sea in the form of heat is equivalent to nearly a hundred times the production of electricity in the world. With these kinds of comparisons, scientists are trying to get this amazing number to make it somewhat understandable.

“Most of the global warming from human carbon emissions is absorbed by the oceans,” Michael Mann, lead of the US research team, said in a media release. “Until we get to net zero emissions, this warming will continue and we will continue to break records for ocean heat content.”