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The UN Environment Programme reported 146 dead zones in 2004 in the world's oceans where marine life could not be supported due to depleted oxygen levels. Some of these were as small as a square kilometer (0.4 mi 2), but the largest dead zone covered 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 mi 2). A 2008 study counted 405 dead zones worldwide. [4] [2]
The biggest threat of ocean plastic pollution comes from microplastics. These are small fragments of plastic debris, some of which were produced to be this small such as microbeads. Other microplastics come from the weathering of larger plastic waste. Once larger pieces of plastic waste enter the ocean, or any waterway, the sunlight exposure ...
The ramifications of climate change, notably global warming, induce an elevation in ocean temperatures that triggers coral bleaching—a potentially lethal phenomenon for coral ecosystems. Scientists estimate that over next 20 years, about 70 to 90% of all coral reefs will disappear.
Climate change and the associated warming of the ocean will lead to widespread changes to the Earth's climate and weather system including increased tropical cyclone and monsoon intensities and weather extremes with some areas becoming wetter and others drier. [14] Changing wind patterns are predicted to increase wave heights in some areas.
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But the surface is also on the front line of climate change and pollution. Life on the ocean's surface connects worlds. From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there. [28]
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority considers the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef to be climate change, causing ocean warming which increases coral bleaching. [ 64 ] [ 65 ] Mass coral bleaching events due to marine heatwaves occurred in the summers of 1998, 2002, 2006, 2016, 2017 and 2020, [ 66 ] [ 13 ] [ 67 ] and coral ...
Climate change refers to a lasting change in the Earth's climate. The climate has ranged from ice ages to warmer periods when palm trees grew in Antarctica. It has been hypothesized that there was also a period called "snowball Earth" when all the oceans were covered in a layer of ice.