The colour of the ocean has changed significantly over the last 20 years and human-caused climate change is likely responsible, according to a new study.
More than 56% of the world’s oceans have changed colour to an extent that cannot be explained by natural variability, said a team of researchers, led by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre in the U.K. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., in a statement.Tropical oceans close to the equator in particular have become greener in the past two decades, reflecting changes in their ecosystems, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Ocean ecosystems are finely balanced and any change in the phytoplankton will send ripples across the food chain. “All changes are causing an imbalance in the natural organization of ecosystems. Such imbalance will only get worse over time if our oceans keep heating,” she told CNN. They used data from the Aqua satellite which has been monitoring ocean colour changes for more than two decades and is able to pick out differences that are not visible to the human eye.
Dutkiewicz, who has been running simulations that showed the oceans were going to change colour for years, said she is not surprised at this finding.
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