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Ocean Warming

Effects of rising seawater temperature on marine biogeochemistry and ecosystem function.

Current stories

scienceOne report1 publisher

Fewer baby lobsters in Maine's midcoast preceded the fall in catchable adults, a UMaine study finds

University of Maine researchers found an 80% drop in baby lobsters sampled from 2010 to 2022 was followed by a 50% drop in catchable adults in the midcoast. The link was clearest there, so baby-lobster surveys look like a usable early signal in that region and a less certain one elsewhere.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+8
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence65
scienceOne report1 publisher

Finger coral from cooler Ulupau withstood more lab heat than Kaneohe finger coral or either bay's rice coral

Two Hawaiian reef corals both showed lab bleaching thresholds above NOAA's 4-degree-heating-week level, Florida Atlantic University researchers report. A tolerance score from one coral population cannot be assumed to hold for another species or bay.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence60
scienceOne report1 publisher

Haida Gwaii swordfish carcass gives British Columbia roughly its third record of the species

Filmmaker Quinn Barabash found a nearly two-metre swordfish on Haida Gwaii, a fish thought to have been documented in B.C. only twice before. The fisheries researchers who wrote up the find use it to urge B.C. managers to prepare for heat-driven catch failures.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives45
Confidence50
scienceOne report1 publisher

One giant clam shell shows northern Great Barrier Reef summers ran up to 1.2C cooler around 1800

Growth lines and isotopes in one giant clam shell from Jiigurru put northern Great Barrier Reef summers around 1800 at 0.9 to 1.2C cooler than in 1995-2015. Winters were nearly unchanged, so this site's warming has come mostly in the hot season, on the evidence of one animal.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives35
Confidence50
scienceOne report1 publisher

Warming aggravated by El Niño drives tuna and anchovy from Latin America's Pacific coast

Jonathan Cedeno's Guayaquil survey found water off Ecuador up to 6°C warmer at 40 meters over ten weeks, as fishers along the Pacific coast land less. Surface water warmed 2.5 to 3°C, and so far the damage is recorded in skippers' own accounts from four countries, with El Niño's peak still ahead.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence52
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Bermuda's lobster catches track a plankton food-chain index more closely than sea temperature

Arizona State-led researchers built a plankton food-chain index that explains Bermuda's spiny lobster catch rates better than four simpler predictors. Officials at Bermuda's environment department say it can warn them of trouble in the larval stage before the catch shows it.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives60
Confidence45
scienceOne report1 publisher

Mediterranean temperature and salinity trends are speeding up 2,500 metres below the surface

Elena Terzic and Ivica Vilibic compiled cruise and float measurements from 1950 to 2025 and found the Mediterranean's warming and salinification accelerating far below the surface layer, fastest of all in the deep Adriatic.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives60
Confidence62
scienceOne report1 publisher

An octopus bloom off southwest England is eating the catch inside the shellfish fleet's traps

The Marine Biological Association's case for the boom rests on underwater video, eggs, juveniles and 120 surveyed divers, while the shellfish landings that fell alongside it are so far timing rather than attributed cause.

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives42
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Warmer water makes seagrass carbon less durable, and blue-carbon math assumes durability

A mesocosm experiment found that 4 degrees Celsius of warming cut the hard-to-degrade share of seagrass dissolved organic carbon by about 28 percent on average.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+22
Incentives60
Confidence52