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The surface salinity of the ocean is a key variable in the climate system when studying the global water cycle, ocean–atmosphere exchanges and ocean circulation, all vital components transporting heat, momentum, carbon and nutrients around the world. [84] Cold water is more dense than warm water and salty water is more dense than freshwater.
Water temperature changes or disease of the coral [56] can induce coral bleaching, as happened during the 1998 and 2004 El Niño years, in which sea surface temperatures rose well above normal, bleaching and killing many reefs. Bleaching may be caused by different triggers, including high sea surface temperature (SST), pollution, or other ...
Sea turtle entangled in a ghost net. Ghost gear is fishing gear that has been left or lost in the ocean. [7] [15] The gear can potentially continue to catch or entangle any species of marine life as it drifts through the water or snags on rocky reef, eventually killing the entangled organism through laceration, suffocation or starvation. [16]
For marine scientists, it was deja vu: Another die-off swept through the region in the 1980s and slashed sea urchin populations by around 98%. Mystery solved: Scientists ID Caribbean sea urchin killer
Jack mackerel caught by a Chilean purse seiner Fishing down the food web. Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the species becoming increasingly underpopulated in that area.
Jack mackerel caught by a Chilean purse seiner Fishing down the food web. Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the species becoming increasingly underpopulated in that area.
The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System is considered critically endangered according to the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. [5] [1] Over the past 50 years, this ecosystem has faced numerous threats, including hurricanes, rising surface water temperatures, ocean acidification, pollution, overfishing, invasive species such as lionfish and disease outbreaks of corals and urchins.
Yellow-band disease is a bacterial infection that spreads over coral, causing the discolored bands of pale-yellow or white lesions along the surface of an infected coral colony. The lesions are the locations where the bacteria have killed the coral's symbiotic photosynthetic algae , called zooxanthellae which are a major energy source for the ...