Challenge For Our Generation: Blue Planet's Oceans Have Been Rapidly Warming Up - Reports New Study By IUCN

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Our blue planet is an ocean planet and we are destroying it's oceans with no conscience. Earth's surface is mostly covered in salt water but we live on dry land, so it is easy for us to forget how important the oceans are for our survival.

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The new, comprehensive study that involved 80 scientists from tens of different countries and published by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shows the powerful effect global warming has on the oceans.

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The oceans assimilate over 90% of the heat which is trapped in the atmosphere, because of rising greenhouse gas emissions. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the top layer of the ocean (up to few meters deep) has been continuously warming up with the speed of approximately 0.13 °C per decade and it is escalating. When we try to imagine the amount of water included in this top layer of all five oceans, then we realize how much energy has been needed to increase the temperature to such extent. The scientists predict that the sea temperature could rise up to 4 °C by the end of this century, if we keep warming the climate in current pace. This would completely devastate ocean ecosystems.

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The change of temperature hugely impacts the fundamental segment of sea life such as plankton. It causes fish to move into different feeding range which influences their reproduction and numbers. This causes domino effect within the food chain.
The study points out that warming of the oceans will further decimate ocean species despite that there are already more than 23,000 sea species regarded as threatened with extinction.
Growing assimilation of carbon dioxide rises water acidification. When ocean becomes more acidic, it starts to dissolve calcium carbonate shells of many marine organisms such as corals, clams, shrimps and crabs.
The warming of the ocean causes large scale migrations of many animal species. Fish, squids, sea turtles, jellyfish and even birds are forced to move away from equator towards colder areas. These animals often become invasive in new regions expanding the damage to local ecosystems.

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These changes do not only affect the oceans but also what is on the land. We will see more and more droughts, floods, hurricanes, torrential rains and even earthquakes, which will intensify migration of human populations.
All these factors have become positive feedback loops which started to exponentially increase existing negative changes in all global ecosystems.

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References:

The IUCN study, 2016 - "Explaining ocean warming".

The IUCN article - "Red List of Threatened Species".

National Geographic article - "The Oceans Can’t Protect Us Anymore - Here’s Why".