'Climate Armageddon': Scientists observe sea temperatures rise in UK

euronews (in English)

Sea temperatures impact kelp and seagrass, which support ecosystems around Europe exactly the same way as coral does. Without them, marine diversity will be in danger.

Transcript

00:00 Off the southwest coast of Britain, on the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean,

00:04 scientists from the Marine Biological Association

00:07 have been observing alarming sea surface temperatures.

00:11 A constant concern, but this year more than ever.

00:14 At the beginning of the summer, temperatures were up to 5 degrees warmer than the average.

00:19 Sea temperatures are still almost 2 degrees higher than the long-term average.

00:23 And they've been high pretty much all of this year.

00:26 The team hasn't just been observing the temperatures,

00:29 but for over a decade, the kelp in this part of southwest England.

00:33 And earlier this summer, the temperatures were so alarming

00:36 to push the kelp to the limit of what it can cope with.

00:39 And that matters, because it's the foundation of the marine ecosystems that surround Britain.

00:44 A few degrees doesn't sound like very much,

00:47 but from a marine environment which is relatively very thermally stable,

00:52 that could potentially have a huge impact.

00:55 But that's what some of our research is hoping to find out.

00:58 The team has been running experiments on the health of kelp and seagrass,

01:03 both in the sea and in the laboratory,

01:06 to see what's likely to happen if the trend continues.

01:09 Seagrass being examined in current and projected future water temperatures.

01:13 This year in particular, the North Atlantic has been alarmingly warm.

01:17 Ocean warming and marine heatwaves are going to ramp up over the coming years to decades,

01:20 with huge consequences for fisheries, for aquaculture,

01:23 for the conservation of marine ecosystems.

01:25 Kelp and seagrass support ecosystems around Europe exactly the same way as coral does.

01:31 But unlike coral, kelp is found in huge quantities across the globe.

01:36 It does feel like climate Armageddon might be getting a little bit closer,

01:41 and some of the things that we've considered to be almost fantasy and science fiction

01:47 are at risk of happening within our lifetimes.

01:50 Data collated by Copernicus,

01:52 the Earth observation component of the European Union's space programme,

01:56 highlights 2023 as an alarming year in terms of sea surface temperature.

02:01 We've seen examples in the Pacific where we've had die-offs

02:04 and big oxygen low zones associated with the warming.

02:08 And it wouldn't be untrue to say that we may be on the edge of seeing that

02:13 around the UK and European seas as well.

02:17 As temperatures test the foundations of marine ecosystems,

02:21 scientists continue to analyse what's in store in the short term

02:25 and what the oceans could look like for future generations.

02:28 Luke Hanrahan, Euronews, Plymouth.

02:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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