(Photo : Sato T. and Nakamura T., Scientific Reports, July 26, 2019)
According to Pippa Moore, a marine-community ecologist at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, the effects of marine heatwaves will reverberate up the food chain. Phytoplankton development was harmed by warm, low-nutrient water in the Northwest Pacific during The Blob, a coastal heatwave from 2013 to 2016. Then the population of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) plummeted, and up to one million seabirds died in the Gulf of Alaska. For the last few decades, large quantities of coral bleaching have occurred in reefs worldwide due to marine heatwaves.
In 2013, a massive marine heatwave known as The Blob formed off the western coast of North America and lasted until the middle of 2016. From 2003 to 2012, this chart depicts satellite readings of ocean surface temperatures, with colors showing values that are higher (red) or lower (blue) than the average. The slider compares April 2014 temperatures to Mar