Ocean Warming
How a Warming Ocean is Changing Life on Earth
Introduction
The global ocean is the engine of planet Earth, playing a crucial role in regulating our climate by absorbing and redistributing heat. Through extensive observations, we now know that the ocean has absorbed more than 30% of the carbon and 91% of the excess heat generated by anthropogenic climate change. This has far-reaching consequences for life in the ocean and on land, many of which we are still working to understand fully.
The Impact of Ocean Warming
Ocean Warming Is Causing Significant Changes To Our Planet:
As water warms, it expands, and melting ice adds more water to the oceans. This gradual rise threatens coastal ecosystems, erodes shorelines, and displaces human communities.
Periods of abnormally high ocean temperatures can last for days to months, causing widespread coral bleaching, altering fish migration patterns, and disrupting the food chain.
Warmer oceans can intensify storms, shift precipitation patterns, and lead to more extreme weather events.
Cutting-Edge Ocean Monitoring Technology
AtlantiS is a Natural Environment Research Council (UKRI) funded programme that provides evidence, tools and knowledge to support the UK ambition for healthy, biologically diverse & resilient marine environments, a sustainable blue economy and communities safe from natural hazards.
Monitoring such a vast and diverse environment requires many different approaches. By making consistent observations over time we are able to distinguish between natural variability and environmental shifts in response to human-driven climate change.
AtlantiS is using cutting-edge innovation to meet our ocean observing needs which includes some of the longest marine and climate time-series in the world.
APICS
The Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS) uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to automatically image and classify plankton. The APICS is revolutionising the speed and volume of data that can be analysed, helping us to understand how environmental changes are affecting plankton.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Autonomous vehicles, such as Autosub Long Range (ALR), are robot submarines powered by batteries and a propeller. They are designed to undertake long-range missions spending weeks or months at sea. They are often used to conduct high-resolution surveys of seabed habitats, but can measure a wide range of parameters.
Argo Floats
A robotic instrument that drifts with the ocean currents, Argo Floats move up and down between the surface and mid-water level. Argo measurements have transformed our understanding of ocean heat and circulation. The availability of this data has significantly improved the accuracy of our weather forecasts.
CPR
Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPR) are towed behind merchant ships, collecting plankton. The programme is the world’s largest monitoring programme and has covered more than 7 million nautical miles of ocean in over 90 years, and provides a unique insight into ocean health which helps protect our ocean.
Gliders
An internal pump enables gliders to easily change buoyancy, gliding up and down in the water taking measurements. They can stay at sea for several months communicating when they surface via satellites to shore. Gliders have unique high-resolution, longterm sampling capabilities that provide valuable insights into oceanographic phenomena.
PAP-SO
The Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO) is a fixed-point, open-ocean, observatory. Operating since 1985, this is one of a small number of sites that have achieved time series datasets to full ocean depth over several decades, providing key information for the assessment of long-term change in the ocean and its ecosystems.
Research Vessels
Vital for ocean observations, research vessels are equipped with onboard labs, they take a wide range of high-quality measurements over the full water column and deploy and recover equipment from our ocean monitoring sites. They are also used in the deployment of tethered equipment, such as the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Isis which can dive down to 6,000m.
ROV
Unoccupied robotic submersibles, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), are linked to a ship via an umbilical cable. Power and control systems are transmitted down the cable allowing high-definition video and data to be streamed back up to the operators and scientists on board the ship.
Satellites
Providing large scale repeat mapping of the ocean surface, satellites enable the generation of data on sea surface height, roughness, temperature and colour. This data is fundamental to understanding change on a global scale.
Key Research Areas
AtlantiS focuses on two critical areas of ocean research that provide valuable insights into marine ecosystems and global climate patterns.
Western Channel Observatory (WCO)
A unique oceanographic time-series and marine biodiversity reference site, comprising pelagic, benthic, and atmospheric observations.
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
A complex system of ocean currents moving heat across the Atlantic Ocean. Small changes in AMOC strength can significantly impact climate patterns globally.
The Importance of Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton, the microscopic plants of the sea, are the foundation of the aquatic food web. These tiny organisms perform a colossal
task, having produced more than half of the Earth’s oxygen through photosynthesis, much like the plants and trees on land. They flourish in vast blooms that can be seen from space, painting the ocean’s surface in swaths of vibrant colour.
Beyond their beauty, both phytoplankton and zooplankton (microscopic animals of the sea), play a critical role in carbon sequestration, helping to regulate our climate. This is a testament to the profound interconnectedness of life, where even the smallest beings have the power to shape our world.
DEEP HEAT: HOW A WARMING OCEAN IS CHANGING LIFE ON EARTH
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