Ocean Heating and Acidification
Record Warm Water Likely Gave Kuskokwim Salmon Heart Attacks
Earlier this week, water temperatures near Bethel broke into the lower 70s, marking the highest river temperature that’s ever been recorded in early July. This spell was part of a heat wave that shot thermometers to their highest point ever in towns across Alaska. During this time, residents along the lower Kuskokwim River from Tuntutuliak to Akiak reported dead salmon floating downstream. Salmon don’t function well past 70 degrees, and the water had pushed just above that limit.
Climate Change is Weakening an Ocean Current
Both studies found that melting ice from Greenland has spilled huge quantities of freshwater into the North Atlantic, diluting the dense salinity of North Atlantic currents and weakening the AMOC by 15 percent. However, the results disagree on when the changes started. For decades, scientists have worried that human-caused global warming could weaken this system and drastically alter weather patterns. It’s an idea best known from the scientifically and cinematically awful 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow.
Heatwaves sweeping oceans ‘like wildfires’, scientists reveal
Ocean Heat Waves The Guardian 2019
The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”. The damage caused in these hotspots is also harmful for humanity, which relies on the oceans for oxygen, food, storm protection and the removal of climate-warming carbon dioxide the atmosphere, they say.
