Key Points
And since March, global average sea surface temperatures have kept smashing record highs...
When variability meets a long-term trend of rising temperatures, the warms just get warmer, says Michael Jacox, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration..
Phytoplankton will drive zooplankton, which will drive fish and will feed other things, says Francisco Chavez, a biological oceanographer and senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute..
When oceans warm, a few things happen physically and chemically to the surface waters that these organisms call home..
In addition to the ocean waters themselves sequestering carbon from the atmosphere (carbon dioxide dissolves in water, which raises its acidity, which is how you get ocean acidification), this is a hugely important way that the planet removes some of humanitys emissions...
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