Researchers first sounded the alarm in May when they spotted bleached sea sponges off New Zealand’s southern coast. Their investigation found that up to tens of millions of sponges can turn white.
To our knowledge, this is the highest level of sponge bleaching reported in a single event, especially in cold water.The British newspaper quoted Professor James Bell, a marine ecologist at the University of Victoria.
Sea sponges, like corals, depend on organisms to coexist with them for photosynthesis, to provide food, and sometimes to deter predators.
Although bleach does not necessarily destroy the sponge, it inhibits these organisms, reducing the sponge’s chemical defenses and depriving them of food. While some species are able to recover from severe bleaching, Bell says there are some that are not.
Robert Smith, an oceanographer at the University of Otago, says the ocean has set record temperatures around New Zealand due to two sea-heat waves, five degrees warmer than normal in some areas.
On New Zealand’s northern and southern borders, we’ve experienced the longest and strongest sea heat wave in 40 years since satellite measurements of ocean temperatures began in 1981. stressed the world.
In some areas, the intense heat wave at sea last September began and just ended, lasting 213 daysHe noted that this was a rather unusual phenomenon.
It’s hard to attribute the heat wave to a man-made climate crisis, Smith says, but ocean temperatures are rising around the world.
Over the past century, the frequency, duration and intensity of sea heat waves have increased dramatically around the world– Tell.
These heat waves are expected to be more intense and prolonged in the future.
Now we can get a glimpse of what our oceans will look like for our children and grandchildrenSmith warned.
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