{"id":61798,"date":"2022-02-07T16:20:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T21:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61798"},"modified":"2022-02-07T16:20:25","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T21:20:25","slug":"the-pasts-extreme-ocean-heat-waves-are-now-the-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61798","title":{"rendered":"The past\u2019s extreme ocean heat waves are now the new normal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

The past\u2019s extreme ocean heat waves are now the new normal<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n
\n

More than half the global ocean experiences high temperatures that were rare a century ago<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

\n
\n
\n

Yesterday\u2019s scorching ocean extremes are today\u2019s new normal. A new analysis of surface ocean temperatures over the past 150 years reveals that in 2019,\u00a057 percent of the ocean\u2019s surface<\/a>\u00a0experienced temperatures rarely seen a century ago, researchers report February 1 in\u00a0PLOS Climate<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To provide context for the frequency and duration of modern extreme heat events, marine ecologists Kisei Tanaka, now at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Honolulu, and Kyle Van Houtan, now at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Fla., analyzed monthly sea-surface temperatures from 1870 through 2019, mapping where and when extreme heat events occurred decade to decade.<\/p>\n

Looking at monthly extremes rather than annual averages revealed new benchmarks in how the ocean is changing. More and more patches of water hit extreme temperatures over time, the team found. Then, in 2014, the entire ocean hit the \u201cpoint of no return,\u201d Van Houtan says. Beginning that year, at least half of the ocean\u2019s surface waters saw temperatures hotter than the most extreme events from 1870 to 1919.<\/p>\n

\n

In hot water<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new analysis of monthly sea surface temperatures across the global ocean reveals how more and more patches of ocean saw heat extremes every year. These four decadal snapshots show temperature shifts since 1980. Beginning in 2014, more than half of the ocean began to reach extremes hotter than even the most extreme events from 1870 to 1919.<\/p>\n

Changes in sea surface temperatures, 1980\u20132019<\/h6>\n
\"four<\/picture>
K.R. TANAKA AND K.S. VAN HOUTAN\/PLOS\u00a0CLIMATE<\/em>\u00a02022<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Marine heat waves are defined as at least five days of unusually high temperatures for a patch of ocean. Heat waves wreak havoc on ocean ecosystems,\u00a0leading to seabird starvation<\/a>, coral bleaching, dying kelp forests, and migration of\u00a0fish, whales and turtles in search of cooler waters<\/a>\u00a0(SN: 1\/15\/20; SN: 8\/10\/20<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past\u2019s extreme ocean heat waves are now the new normal More than half the global ocean experiences high temperatures that were rare a century ago Yesterday\u2019s scorching ocean extremes are today\u2019s new normal. A new analysis of surface ocean temperatures over the past 150 years reveals that in 2019,\u00a057 percent of the ocean\u2019s surface\u00a0experienced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32622,32623,8320],"class_list":["post-61798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-carolyn-gramling","tag-ocean-heat-wave","tag-ocean-temperatures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61799,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61798\/revisions\/61799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}