Most recent 40 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Oceans
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How to protect inland communities from climate gentrification - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Oct 19) |
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Oct 19 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Oceanfront property is often considered a luxury. But as climate change brings rising seas and more intense storms, many coastal homes are at risk of flooding. So some wealthy homeowners are looking to move inland.
“And some of those places that are inland have historically been lower income, predominantly populated by people of color. And so you’re seeing people who can afford to move out and make that decision, buying in places and causing housing prices to skyrocket,” Allie Reilly says.
Reilly is a climate resilience planner with WSP, a ... Read more ...
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Pacific Island nations stand to lose much more than land as seas rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Oct 16) |
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Oct 16 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
As seas rise, some small low-lying Pacific islands are disappearing, inch by inch, into the ocean.
Experts warn that countries such as Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands could become uninhabitable this century.
Kamal Amakrane of the U.N. Global Center for Climate Mobility says the threat to these nations goes beyond land loss.
“It’s their statehood and sovereignty being challenged,” he says. “It’s their heritage and culture being challenged.”
Amakrane leads the Rising Nations Initiative, which aims to protect the sovereignty of island ... Read more ...
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Is climate change contributing to mysterious gray whale deaths? - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Sep 14) |
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Sep 14 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Since 2019, more than 600 gray whales have washed ashore along the west coast from Mexico to Alaska.
Occasional strandings occur every year. But these numbers are far higher than normal. And some of the whales were abnormally thin.
“We set about … to really try to look at what was going on with their food source,” says Sue Moore of the University of Washington.
She says gray whales do most of their feeding in the Arctic during the summer. They primarily eat small arthropods that live on the ocean floor.
But in some areas, these ... Read more ...
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Flood-prevention projects can enhance people’s well-being in underrecognized ways - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Sep 13) |
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Sep 13 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
As seas rise and weather becomes more extreme, many communities are investing in flood prevention projects.
Some are creating rain gardens or other green spaces that absorb and hold water. Others are restoring coastal dunes that can help protect inland areas.
These projects can be expensive. So Tess Doeffinger of the University of Alabama says that as cities weigh the pros and cons, it’s important to realize that flood prevention can do more than just protect property.
For example, reducing flooding also helps protect people’s health and ... Read more ...
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New Orleans groups help grow trees for vanishing cypress swamps - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Aug 18) |
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Aug 18 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Bald cypress trees - with Spanish moss hanging from the branches - were once abundant in Louisiana bayous.
“Back in the '40s and '50s, and even '60s, a lot of the bayous had cypress trees, and these were cypress swamps,” says Arthur Johnson of the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, a nonprofit based in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.
He says bald cypress trees help protect communities from hurricanes because they help break the wind, absorb floodwater, and reduce erosion.
But large areas of the water-tolerant conifers have ... Read more ...
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Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary to serve as living climate lab - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Aug 7) |
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Aug 7 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For more than 10,000 years, the Chumash people have lived along the coast of what is now central California.
“The Chumash had been the stewards and the guardians of this area since time immemorial,” says P.J. Webb, a tribal adviser and board member of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, a nonprofit.
She says the region’s coastal waters provide critical habitat for whales, otters, shellfish, and other species. And they’re home to ancestral Chumash villages that were submerged by geological changes over millenniums.
So to protect this ... Read more ...
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Students explore ways to make San Francisco’s waterfront more resilient - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Aug 2) |
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Aug 2 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In January 2023, a group of high school students took a field trip to San Francisco’s waterfront.
They discussed the risks posed to the area from sea level rise and extreme storms. And using stencils, they marked sidewalks to show how far inland the bay water is expected to reach as seas rise.
“So that is not only an educational activity for the kids, but also it is a public awareness campaign about what the future could look like,” says Luiz Barata, a senior planner with the Waterfront Resilience Program for the Port of San Francisco.
The ... Read more ...
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Eight excellent books on sea level rise risk for U.S. cities - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jul 18) |
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Jul 18 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
A number of excellent books have been written on the climate change-related flood risks for American cities most at-risk from sea level rise; I’ve read them all and can highly recommend them for anyone living in these cities or considering moving there.
“Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm,” a 2023 book by Susan Crawford, has a detailed look at the flooding issues of the Charleston, South Carolina, region. The book has the best proposal I’ve ... Read more ...
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American Samoa’s coastal communities face worsened sea level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jun 29) |
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Jun 29 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the South Pacific, the volcanic islands of American Samoa rise from the ocean.
Most residents of the U.S. territory live near the shorelines, in coastal plains that surround steep, rugged peaks.
But as seas rise, ocean water is creeping into these low-lying areas. And a huge earthquake in 2009 caused the land to settle and sink, accelerating the problem.
“The yard I used to have extended about 80 feet from my steps and it was all grass up to the last coconut tree before the mangroves. And now that whole area is intertidal zone with mud ... Read more ...
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The foul chartreuse sea - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (May 15, 2023) |
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May 15, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Dead fish were everywhere, speckling the beach near town and extending onto the surrounding coastline. The sheer magnitude of the October 2021 die-off, when hundreds, possibly thousands, of herring washed up, is what sticks in the minds of the residents of Kotzebue, Alaska. Fish were “literally all over the beaches,” says Bob Schaeffer, a fisherman and elder from the Qikiqtagru?miut tribe.
Despite the dramatic deaths, there was no apparent culprit. “We have no idea what caused it,” says Alex Whiting, the environmental program director for the Native ... Read more ...
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Student recommendations incorporated into $100+ million flood-prevention project - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Apr 12, 2023) |
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Apr 12, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The Chesterfield Heights neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia, has long been plagued by flooding. During high tide, water often blocks one of only two roads into the community. And during storms, it pools in people’s basements.
But relief is now in sight - thanks in large part to a group of students.
Mujde Erten-Unal is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Old Dominion University.
Eight years ago, her class worked with architecture students from Hampton University to design solutions to the neighborhood’s flooding woes. Read more ...
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Climate change could disrupt Maine’s coastal economy and culture - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Mar 23, 2023) |
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Mar 23, 2023 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
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Maine has thousands of miles of coastline, and many small communities that rely heavily on fishing and tourism.
“Maine is a state that is deeply rooted in coastal culture. And it’s part of our traditions, part of our heritage, a huge part of our economy,” says Gayle Bowness of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
But she says climate change threatens to disrupt coastal life.
Rising seas and extreme storms will cause increased flooding, erosion, and land loss. And rapidly ... Read more ...
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Rising seas could cause septic system failures in Beaufort County, South Carolina - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Mar 14, 2023) |
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Mar 14, 2023 · Take the Yale Climate Connections audience survey today.
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As seas rise, groundwater levels in coastal areas do, too. So when a storm hits, water can inundate people’s septic systems.
Some residents in low-lying Beaufort County, South Carolina, are already facing the disgusting consequences. During heavy rain, some septic systems fail, so people are unable to flush their toilets. And contaminated floodwater pools in yards and streets.
Amanda Guthrie is a coastal climate and resilience specialist with the South Carolina Sea Grant ... Read more ...
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Many coastal residents willing to relocate in the face of sea level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Mar 09, 2023) |
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Mar 09, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
As seas rise, water is increasingly creeping into homes and neighborhoods. And over time, a growing number of coastal residents will need to decide whether to accept frequent flooding or move.
Anamaria Bukvic of the Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech wanted to know how willing people are to consider a permanent move. She surveyed more than 1,400 residents living in flood-prone urban areas from New York to Florida.
She found that almost half would be willing to move if flooding becomes more frequent and severe.
“Close to 40% of them ... Read more ...
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Free program helps Gulf Coast communities assess climate risk - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Feb 16, 2023) |
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Feb 16, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Cities and towns near the Gulf Coast need to prepare for sea level rise and increasingly extreme weather. But many small communities do not have enough staff, funding, or data to do so. And often, their resources are already strained from past storms.
“When you have low capacity in a variety of areas, you’re kind of in a constant cycle of response recovery, response recovery, response and recovery,” says Teal Harrison of Adaptation International. “It can be hard to pick your head up and kind of look forward, or you might not have the support to help ... Read more ...
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A zoning law is helping to protect South Carolina’s St. Helena Island from sea level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jan 19, 2023) |
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Jan 19, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
Many islands off the Atlantic coast are packed with shops, restaurants, and oceanfront resorts.
But not Saint Helena Island in South Carolina. This island is a cultural center for the Gullah/Geechee people – descendants of enslaved African Americans, and it remains rural.
People there grow rice and catch shrimp.
“You can still go fishing and hunting. You can still sit beneath an oak tree and see the Spanish moss there. And if you sit close enough, you can hear those voices of the ancestors still alive and well there on our island,” says Queen Quet, chieftess and head of state for the Gullah/Geechee Nation.
She says a zoning law ... Read more ...
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'Amphibious’ houses are designed to float during floods - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Dec 30, 2022) |
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Dec 30, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
An amphibian lives part of its life on land and part in water. An amphibious house is designed to do the same.
“It’s an approach that deals with flooding by allowing a building to float,” says Elizabeth English, professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
She says making a home amphibious can be relatively simple and affordable for homes without basements.
Buoyant blocks are installed under the building. When floodwaters rise, the house rises with it. Vertical rails anchored in the ground ensure it floats straight up and returns to the same spot when the water subsides.
English helped retrofit four rice ... Read more ...
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New building code in Kaua’i accounts for projected sea level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Dec 27, 2022) |
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Dec 27, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
The island of Kaua’i is working hard to make sure that its oceanfront properties stay safe even as seas rise.
The county now requires that new construction be elevated if it’s vulnerable to 3.2 or more feet of sea level rise by 2100.
“This is saying, with projected sea level rise, let’s take these depths and require the built environment to be elevated,” says planning director Ka?aina Hull.
He says Kaua’i already had rules in place to prevent building in locations that are rapidly eroding.
But as seas rise, high tides and high waves could flood other areas, too. So the new ordinance ensures that building owners prepare for these ... Read more ...
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New Jersey wants to restore 10,000 acres of 'fairy-tale’ forest - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Dec 14, 2022) |
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Dec 14, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Near the Jersey shore, Atlantic white cedar trees grow in swampy forests that are fed by freshwater streams. Sunlight glints through dense treetops, and lush green moss blankets the dark understory.
“I mean, it almost feels like you’re entering a fairytale when you go into some of these places,” says Bill Zipse of the New Jersey Forest Service.
He says Atlantic white cedar trees and the muck soils formed in cedar swamps help protect the state’s groundwater by filtering out nutrients and pollutants.
But these forests are dwindling.
Hundreds of years of logging and development have already destroyed more than three-quarters of the ... Read more ...
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How rising sea levels could damage building foundations - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Dec 01, 2022) |
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Dec 01, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Storm surge. Tidal flooding. Erosion. Some impacts of sea-level rise are easy to see, but others are hidden.
“What happens when the sea level rises to the built environment from underneath?” says Hussam Mahmoud of Colorado State University.
He explains that as seas rise, the underground water table in coastal areas rises too. And it gets saltier.
Over time, that saltwater can seep through cracks in a building’s foundation and corrode its steel supports.
Mahmoud’s team analyzed the potential impact of saltwater inundation on about 137,000 residential buildings in Mobile County, Alabama.
They found that by 2100, more than ... Read more ...
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Unusually warm Pacific Ocean waters contributed to devastating storm in Alaska - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Nov 30, 2022) |
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Nov 30, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
This past September, the remains of Typhoon Merbok wreaked havoc on Alaska’s west coast.
The region is no stranger to big storms. But the waters in the North Pacific were unusually warm this year. So Merbok formed much closer to Alaska than most typhoons do.
Rick Thoman is with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He says by the time the storm slowed down over colder water, it was relatively close to shore. And damage from the wind was severe.
“All that wind basically acts as a plow, pushing the water north. And so in many communities, we saw water levels at or near the highest of record,” he ... Read more ...
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'Is it foolish to hold onto my family’s beloved waterfront home?’ - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Oct 28, 2022) |
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Oct 28, 2022 · Join the Yale Center for Environmental Communication for a webinar on November 4, at 12 p.m. EDT. Panelists will discuss the health and community impacts of more frequent and large wildfires. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Kai Chen, Yale School of Public Health.
Yale Climate Connections
Dear Sara,
I live directly on the water in Connecticut, and I have been tormented over the threat of rising water levels for years. I have nightmares about it! I have been debating selling the house, though neither I nor my family truly wish to do so. I would prefer to stay put in this beautiful spot and hope that there is no significant risk to my property for another ... Read more ...
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Most bleak federal report yet on high-tide/sunny-day tide floods - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Aug 21, 2022) |
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Aug 21, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
The federal government’s eighth State of High Tide Flooding report is its starkest assessment yet detailing the upward trends of rising seas spilling into coastal cities.
Scientists at NOAA’s National Ocean Service – the agency’s water counterpart to the National Weather Service – earlier this month reported threefold and fivefold increases since 2000 in sunny-day, high-tide flooding for the southeastern U.S. and western Gulf Coast, respectively. Despite an ongoing La Niña in the eastern Pacific, which can temporarily dampen sea levels along the U.S. coast, the frequency of relentless saltwater flooding – unrelated to extreme weather – has ... Read more ...
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Army Corps of Engineers project aims to protect low-lying marsh - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (May 26, 2022) |
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May 26, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
As sea levels rise and storms become more extreme, seawater is increasingly inundating coastal marshes. That can disrupt the ecosystem. And over time, some low-lying marshes may end up completely underwater.
So the Army Corps of Engineers is experimenting with ways to increase the elevation of marshes that are at risk.
In a pilot project in Georgia, they took mud and silt from a dredging project that deepened Jekyll Creek. Then they sprayed that sediment on a low-lying marsh nearby.
“And so we put about 5,000 cubic yards over five acres, anywhere from about six inches deep to a foot, to try to proactively maintain that marsh ... Read more ...
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A photo essay on coral reef restoration efforts in Florida - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Mar 24, 2022) |
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Mar 24, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Over the past 40 years, nearly 90 percent of live corals on reefs in the Florida Keys have been lost. Worldwide, tropical coral reef coverage has declined by 30% to 50% since the 1980s as climate change raises temperatures, sea levels, and ocean acidity. Authors of a recent study predict catastrophic effects on coral reefs throughout the world from an increase of 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
Those corals will be missed. These ecosystems cover less than 1 % of Earth’s surface, but they feed and shelter more than a quarter of all marine fish species, as well as many other marine animals.
According to the International Union for ... Read more ...
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What if the Mid-Atlantic’s worst nor’easter on record struck today? - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Mar 04, 2022) |
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Mar 04, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Non-tropical winter storms can lash the U.S. East Coast just as destructively as a major hurricane might. Sixty years ago this weekend, coastal areas from North Carolina to New Jersey took the brunt of a prolonged, intense nor’easter that set the regional standard for coastal damage from winter storms.
A look at what happened in the Ash Wednesday storm, which peaked on March 6, 1962, is illuminating in its own right. And when you factor in 8 to 12 inches of subsequent sea level rise along the Mid-Atlantic coast, a similar storm happening today would be even more impressive, muscling out several recent hurricanes.
Now is a good time for such ... Read more ...
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Sea-level rise could bring toxic floods to California coast - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Mar 01, 2022) |
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Mar 01, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
As sea levels rise in California, beachfront homes are not all that’s at risk of flooding. Many industrial sites are also located in coastal areas.
“There are refineries, sewage treatment plants, power plants, legacy hazardous waste sites, Superfund sites, cleanup sites,” says Lara Cushing of the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She says if these industrial sites flood, hazardous pollutants could be released into nearby communities.
So she’s working on the Toxic Tides project, an effort by researchers and community partners to quantify the risks and raise awareness about the ... Read more ...
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Hurricanes can cause ocean acidity to spike near the seafloor - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Feb 11, 2022) |
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Feb 11, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Hurricanes are powerful. They can tear the roofs off houses and cause dangerous floods. Their impacts are even felt at the bottom of the ocean.
Scott Noakes of the University of Georgia has been monitoring water quality at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary for 15 years.
His group has seen carbon dioxide levels steadily rise over time, which is no surprise because the ocean absorbs carbon pollution. But they’ve also observed unexpected spikes.
“We didn’t see these peaks on the surface,” Noakes says. “We only saw them on the sea floor.”
He realized they coincided with extreme storms.
He explains that ocean sediment ... Read more ...
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Tybee Island residents see more flooding as sea levels rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Feb 07, 2022) |
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Feb 07, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
On Tybee Island, off the coast of Georgia, climate change is hard to ignore. Rapidly rising seas and more extreme storms cause repeated flooding in streets, yards, and homes.
“Many of the residents have lived there for a long time,” says Jill Gambill of the University of Georgia Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant. “And so they’re saying … they haven’t seen anything like what’s happened over the last few years.”
Gambill is part of a team working to identify ways to protect Tybee Island from flooding and erosion.
“One of the most vulnerable areas for the island has been the marsh side, which is mostly private property,” she ... Read more ...
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Scientists work to better understand how ocean acidification will affect marine life - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jan 20, 2022) |
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Jan 20, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Visitors to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Georgia, may spot loggerhead turtles, dolphins, or even a whale. And below the surface, hundreds of species live in the nooks and crannies of the rocky sea floor.
“Things like sponges and sea squirts and things called … moss animals, and corals. And all of these organisms encrust the bottom,” says Danny Gleason, director of the Institute for Coastal Plain Science at Georgia Southern University.
He says this invertebrate community supports other marine life by providing food, creating habitat, and filtering water.
But oceans have absorbed about a third of the carbon ... Read more ...
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Scientists examine energetic oceans, eddies, and kinetic energy - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Nov 20, 2021) |
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Nov 20, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Ocean eddies have an important role in moving and mixing the ocean’s waters, including things like nutrients, carbon, salt, and heat, and therefore an important role on climate change.
By moving heat within ocean waters – including transporting heat between different areas and vertically within the ocean – eddies, often referred to as “the weather of the ocean,” help regulate the climate. They vary in size, with some just a handful of miles across, others far larger, and NOAA estimates they account for over half of the ocean’s kinetic energy.
“[Eddies are] pretty much everywhere in the ocean,” says Josué Martínez-Moreno, oceanographer and ... Read more ...
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Depression-era program left some New England communities more vulnerable to sea-level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Nov 06, 2021) |
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Nov 06, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
In the 1930s, the U.S. government put people to work digging thousands of miles of ditches through tidal marshes along the East Coast.
The goal was to drain standing water and reduce the area where mosquitos could breed. But altering marshes came at a cost.
Amanda Spivak of the University of Georgia says that healthy salt marshes help protect communities from flooding by absorbing water and buffering waves.
“We’ve seen with major hurricanes that the presence of really healthy marshes or extensive marsh flats have had a huge benefit in reducing potential damage to those communities,” she says.
One reason salt marshes are such an ... Read more ...
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How the coastal mid-Atlantic is haunted by sea-level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Nov 04, 2021) |
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Nov 04, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
From ghost forests to sinking farmland, coastal salt marshes are rapidly shifting as the oceans rise. The Local Motives team, Nate Murray and Cody Pfister, traveled to New Jersey and Maryland to understand the impact of sea-level rise. In the past, marshes migrated naturally in response to changes, but now those shifts are happening much more quickly and as marshes move inland, they run into human development and farm land. In addition to sea-level rise, storms like Hurricane Sandy also shape the marshes. Learn more in this video:
Every few weeks, Yale Climate Connections will share a new video from Local Motives. This “On the Road” video web ... Read more ...
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'Ghost forests’ are an eerie sign of sea-level rise - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Oct 07, 2021) |
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Oct 07, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Along the Atlantic coast, ghost forests provide haunting signs of sea-level rise. These stands of bleached and broken tree trunks are all that remain after salty water inundates a forest.
Matt Kirwan is with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He says ghost forests are not a new phenomenon, but they’re moving inland faster as seas rise.
“Eventually they’ll fall apart and become stumps surrounded by marshland,” he says. “And so when you see a ghost forest now, you’re seeing where the marsh will be in the future.”
Marshes are valuable ecosystems, so in some ways, that’s positive.
“Ghost forests are a surprising indicator of ... Read more ...
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A young Seminole activist worries about threat of rising seas to her native land - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Aug 24, 2021) |
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Aug 24, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
In the 1800s, the U.S. Army forcibly moved the majority of Florida’s Seminole Indians to Oklahoma. But a few hundred avoided capture and remained deep in the wetlands and wilderness of South Florida. Today, their descendants are federally recognized as the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
“We’re still known as the unconquered tribe because we never signed a treaty with the U.S. back then,” says 18-year-old Valholly Frank.
She worries climate change could finally push them out. She’s concerned about increasingly dangerous storms and how sea-level rise will affect Big Cypress reservation, where she lived as a young child. She says saltwater ... Read more ...
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Deep sea trawling unleashes carbon from the ocean floor - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jul 29, 2021) |
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Jul 29, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
When a whale dies, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. As it decomposes, much of the carbon that makes up its body stays on the sea floor. The same thing happens when other ocean creatures die, creating a carbon-rich sediment that builds over millennia.
“We know that the sea floor is the largest carbon storehouse on the planet,” says Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society.
He says that globally, the sediment on the ocean floor stores more carbon than all the soil on Earth.
“But we are disturbing some of that sediment and that carbon because of bottom trawling, which is a ... Read more ...
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Sea-level rise rates more than double along part of U.S. East Coast - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jul 27, 2021) |
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Jul 27, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Sea levels are creeping up along the Atlantic coast – from rocky New England shores to sandy Southeastern beaches. And as the climate warms, they’re rising at an increasingly fast pace.
Jennifer Walker of Rutgers University recently studied the rate and causes of sea-level rise at six sites between Connecticut and North Carolina.
“We found that at all of these sites, sea-level has been rising over the past 2,000 years,” she says. “But then in the last century, in the 20th century, the rates are now more than double that of the average over the last 2,000 years.”
She says before the year 1800, most sea-level rise was caused by the ... Read more ...
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Coral reefs prevent more than $1.8 billion a year in U.S. flood damage - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jul 15, 2021) |
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Jul 15, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Coral reefs provide a home to so many different creatures that they’re sometimes called “rainforests of the sea.”
And near the shore, they help absorb wave energy. So as extreme storms grow more common, coral reefs help protect coastal communities from flooding and storm surge.
“Coral reefs provide critical coastal protection benefits,” says Borja Reguero of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In a recent study, Reguero and other researchers put a dollar figure to that flood protection. They found that coral reefs prevent more than $1.8 billion in flood damages annually to coastal communities ... Read more ...
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Seagrass can help reduce ocean acidification at local scales - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (Jul 09, 2021) |
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Jul 09, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Burning fossil fuels doesn’t just pollute the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs about a quarter of the CO2 emitted by human activity each year.
“The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide like a sponge,” says Aurora Ricart of the University of California, Davis.
She explains that increased concentrations of CO2 cause water to become more acidic, which can harm marine animals.
But her research indicates that in some areas, coastal seagrasses can help reduce that acidity.
As the underwater plants grow and photosynthesize, they absorb CO2, which Ricart says can reverse ocean acidification at local scales.
Over six years, she and her team ... Read more ...
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Marine photographer captures haunting images of California’s beautiful, but vanishing, kelp forests - Yale Climate Connections - Oceans (May 25, 2021) |
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May 25, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
It’s a sight few visitors to northern California’s coastal waters will ever forget: kelp – giant seaweed if you prefer – growing in lush underwater forests that provide essential habitat for a multitude of species such as rockfish, crabs, mollusks, and even marine mammals like sea otters.
But now a troubling question arises: What does the future hold for these iconic kelp forests and the rich marine life of the Monterey Peninsula and other areas? (Scroll down for a slideshow of images by professional underwater photographer Brandon Cole.)
Few sizable patches of bull kelp remain along some 200 miles of California coastline in Mendocino and ... Read more ...
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