The sea gets warmer – the species die.
It’s not just coral reefs and fish that are threatened as the oceans warm – it’s all life.
Not since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs – along with at least half of all other creatures on Earth – has marine life been so vulnerable.
As the oceans get warmer, all habitats are threatened. There are species that do better than others, but all are affected. Biodiversity, the diversity of species, is threatened which in turn will affect us all.
The world's coral reefs are in trouble. As the oceans get warmer, corals are stressed and eventually die. Coral scientist Tessa Hempson calls corals the "canary in the coal mine". The little bird that used to be placed far down the mine shafts, because when it died you knew the oxygen in the mine would soon run out. A whistleblower who suffers long before we humans do.
Healthy habitats with a diversity of species are important, not least for us to cope with a rapidly changing climate. We have been to the Finnish side of the Baltic Sea and talked to one of the world's leading marine scientists; Alf Norkko.
The Baltic Sea is becoming a hot water bath. It affects the fish more than we might understand. It is a slow process that can be difficult to see. But there is one place where, for a relatively short period of time, scientists have been able to see just that – what happens to the fish when the sea gets warmer. Right next to Forsmark's nuclear power plant in northern Uppland.
Climate change is a major threat to coral reefs. But some coral species appear to be in a better position to withstand and survive in a warmer ocean – if global warming is limited to 2 degrees, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports
"We know approximately how much the fish poop, how much carbon it contains and also how quickly the feces reach the bottom. Against this background, we therefore wanted to investigate how much impact commercial fishing has on carbon storage in the ocean", says Daniele Bianchi from the University of California
How are we affected by the oceans getting warmer?
