Updated 08.29 | Published 08.24
Higher temperatures than now have never been measured in the Sargasso Sea.
The ocean also has a higher acidity and is poorer in oxygen than ever, writes Live Science.
The acidity of the Sargasso Sea has increased by 30 percent in 40 years. The water is also one degree warmer than when measurements began in 1954. This is what a new study shows – and according to the researchers, the dramatic increases are due to climate change.
The researchers discovered the changes when they studied several decades of data from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS). There are the most comprehensive statistics on oceanographic features, BATS conducts deep-sea measurements in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda.
The climate-related changes in the Sargasso Sea have far-reaching consequences, as that water continues on to other ocean systems.
The new study was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on December 8. Lead author Nicholas Bates, a chemical oceanographer at Arizona State University’s Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science, told Live Science:
– The heat in the sea in 2020 is unprecedented in comparison with the oldest statistics we have from the 1950s.
He believes that today’s temperatures probably also break records if you continue even further back in time than that.
– This is the hottest we’ve seen in millions of years, says Nicholas Bates.
– If you heat the planet and change [koncentrationen] of greenhouse gases, you can change the water cycle in the world – where it rains and where it doesn’t.
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