The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Present-day mass redistribution increases the total ocean mass and, on average, causes the ocean bottom to subside elastically. Therefore, barystatic sea level rise is larger than the resulting global mean geocentric sea level rise, observed by satellite altimetry and GPS-corrected tide gauges. We use realistic estimates of mass redistribution from …
The legacy and reach of anthropogenic influence is most clearly evidenced by its impact on the most remote and inaccessible habitats on Earth. Here we identify extraordinary levels of persistent organic pollutants in the endemic amphipod fauna from two of the deepest ocean trenches (>10,000 metres). Contaminant levels were considerably …
Intermittent disruptions to rainfall patterns and intensity over the Pacific Ocean lasting up to B 1 year have major impacts on severe weather, agricultural production, ecosystems, and disease within the Pacific, and in many countries beyond. The frequency with which major disruptions to Pacific rainfall occur has been projected to …
The majority of naturally occurring freshwater on small islands is groundwater, which is primarily recharged by precipitation. Recharge rates are therefore likely to be impacted by climate change. Freshwater resources on small islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change because they are limited in size and easily compromised. Here we …
A new study has warned that oxygen levels in some oceans are beginning to fall and widespread evidence of the trend will likely be evident from 2030 onwards. While the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems are a growing concern, loss of ocean oxygen would leave fish, crabs, squid, …
Large freshwater lakes formed in North America and Europe during deglaciation following the Last Glacial Maximum. Rapid drainage of these lakes into the Oceans resulted in abrupt perturbations in climate, including the Younger Dryas and 8.2 kyr cooling events. In the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere major glacial lakes also …
Core isotope measurements in the equatorial Pacific Ocean reveal that although atmospheric dust deposition during the last ice age was higher than today’s, the productivity of the equatorial Pacific Ocean did not increase; this may have been because iron-enabled greater nutrient consumption, mainly in the Southern Ocean, reduced the nutrients …
Marine plastic pollution is an ever-increasing problem that demands immediate mitigation and reduction plans. Here, a model based on satellite-tracked buoy observations and scaled to a large data set of observations on microplastic from surface trawls was used to simulate the transport of plastics floating on the ocean surface from …
The latest El Niño weather phenomenon is now the biggest and most powerful it has ever been since records began. The cycle of warm and cold temperatures - which is caused by warm water from Australia spilling out across the Pacific Ocean - has already caused havoc across the world …
Coral reefs are essential to ocean health, but dangerous coral bleaching is occurring more often and more widely due to warmer water, scientists report Abnormally warm ocean temperatures are creating conditions that threaten to kill coral in the equatorial Pacific, north Pacific and western Atlantic oceans, the National Oceanic and …
The corals of the South Pacific have been ravaged by bleaching, according to US government scientists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said a global die-off was increasingly likely with the return of El Niño conditions. The warmth that caused an unprecedented die-off in the North Pacific in the …
The world's oceans are heating at the rate of two trillion 100-watt light bulbs burning continuously, providing a clear signal of global warming, according to new study assessing data from a global fleet of drifting floats. The research, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, used data collected …
About 20 percent of the world's fishing catch is taken illegally by poachers, experts estimate, but a new satellite tracking system launched on Wednesday aims to crack down on the industrial-scale theft known as "pirate fishing." Run by the British technology firm Satellite Applications Catapult and backed by the Pew …
Hundreds of robotic instruments deployed across the South Pacific have begun to reveal dramatic new insights into the impact of climate change upon oceans in our corner of the world. One of the world's leading oceanographers, Professor Dean Roemmich, is basing himself in Wellington as he analyses the earliest indicators …
THE “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” lies off the coast of California. But it is not the only place where a system of rotating ocean currents, known as gyres, concentrate floating material, particularly plastic detritus dumped into the sea or washed out from rivers. There is an awful lot of it: …
Of the many processes contributing to long-term sea-level change, little attention has been paid to the large-scale contributions of salinity-driven halosteric changes. We evaluate observed and simulated estimates of long-term (1950-present) halosteric patterns and compare these to corresponding thermosteric changes. Spatially coherent halosteric patterns are visible in the historical record, …
An earthquake with an initial magnitude of 6.8 struck off Easter Island early on Thursday, the Pacific Tsunami Center said, but added there was no threat of a tsunami. The quake hit at 10.15 p.m. ET and was centered in an isolated spot of the southeast Pacific Ocean, around 570 …
Factors involved in the recent pause in the rise of global mean temperatures are examined seasonally. For 1999 to 2012, the hiatus in surface warming is mainly evident in the central and eastern Pacific. It is manifested as strong anomalous easterly trade winds, distinctive sea-level pressure patterns, and large rainfall …
A spike in Pacific Ocean sea temperatures and the rapid movement of warm water eastwards have increased concerns that an El Nino pattern this year could be one of the strongest in several decades, an Australian climate scientist said. El Nino — a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific …
The global warming "pause" which some climate sceptics have taken as evidence that climate change is a myth could in fact be explained by a dramatic increase in the amount of heat being taken out of the atmosphere by the Pacific Ocean, a study has found. The easterly trade winds …
