“If the seas continue to warm, we can expect to see stronger storms in the future,” James Elsner of Florida State University said.

Satellite data has shown that during the last 25 years “strong cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons have become more frequent in most of the tropics”. But according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature, the strength of weaker storms have not been “noticeably altered”.

“The researchers believe weaker storms are not affected so much because the factors that prevent them developing to their full potential, notably wind shear – abrupt changes in wind speed and direction that prevent the cyclone fuelling itself with ocean heat – are not related to ocean temperatures.”

But the scientists also calculated that only a 1C rise in sea surface temperature will increase the amount of strong storms by about one third. More controversial, some scientists warn that a warmer sea temperature will not just create stronger storms but also increase their numbers.

Read more at BBC News and Reuters.

Research by the University of Gothenburg shows that more than 400 marine zones around the world has such “a great lack of oxygen in soft seabeds that fauna and fish have been harmed.” The research made by the Swedish University also shows that the dead soft seabeds have doubled every decade since the 60′s.

Back in 1995 Rutger Rosenberg, from the Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg, and Robert Diaz, from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in the USA, carried out research and studies on the world’s soft seabeds. Their research then showed 44 zones “that were so afflicted by oxygen deficiency that soft-seabed fauna and fish had been harmed.”

Now, nearly 13 years after that research the numbers of dead zones have risen to more than 400. These latest findings, which have been presented in the latest issue of the magazine Science, draw the conclusion that this is “the most serious threat to the health of the sea” and that it is and will affect important fishing areas.

“There are no other variables of such great ecological significance for coastal marine ecosystems, and which have changed so drastically in such a short time, as the reduced amount of oxygen in the sea. In the periods when the oxygen deficiency has its largest spread in Scandinavia, there can be a deficit of over three million tonnes of soft-seabed fauna, compared to the situation if the soft seabeds had been well oxygenated”, says Rutger Rosenberg.

The dead zones together are “at least” 245,000 square kilometres big, or equal to the size of Great Britain. The worst places hit are the Baltic Sea in northern Europe, the Gulf of Mexico and the East China Sea.

Image credit: txd. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution license.

When household and industrial wastes are disposed into the water, they increase the quantity of germs in it. Germs threaten the health of the organisms living in the water, drinking it or feeding on organisms that live in it. Moreover, huge quantities of nitric and phosphoric salts enter the ecosystem. Phytoplankton, the tiniest sea organisms that can photosynthesize and depend highly on those salts, start to grow in population at top speed, consuming oxygen. As a result, zooplankton which feeds on phytoplankton starts to increase in numbers, again consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide.

After some time, during which those small organisms continue to consume oxygen and produce larger amounts of carbon dioxide, there is not enough oxygen to sustain bigger organisms, like fish, who actually die of suffocation.

Lakes are the most usual ecosystems harmed by eutrophication. Oxygen cannot be easily diminished in the sea, and the movement of the water in rivers transfer the salts else where. The most common sign of eutrophication is the waters having a deep green colour. And as human wastes increase, ecosystems become more fragile and their living organisms more vulnerable to suffocation.

Consequently, one of our first priorities, as far as those ecosystems is concerned, is to find alternative ways of removing our industrial and household waste, so that it doesn’t end up in the water. The top priority, needless to say, is to reduce those wastes.

Since 1959 enormous quantities of radioactive waste have been thrown into the Arctic Ocean, including nuclear reactors, while another million of chemical weapons decay onto the sea floor in 400-4500 metres depth. Moreover, Spain has stored 100.000 barrels containing slight radiocative waste, from scientific laboratories. Plutonium from the nuclear trials is detected in the southern seas of the Atlantic ocean. Britain has recorded 57.435 shipwrecks, including nuclear submarines.

The highly dangerous poison DDT harms the marine organisms more than the others, and thanks to the marine currents it is transfered to all seas, affecting every organism. PBDE, a substance used for computer and television construction, has been detected in whales’ fat!

90% of all fish are polluted by mercury and another 25% by PCB.

Every oil drilling pollutes the sea bed in an area of 20 square kilometres and at the one third of this area all forms of life die.

Wordwide algies increase dramatically while fish population reduces. Since the day Israel didn’t sign the ban about chemical depositions in the seas, the Haifa Chemicals company only has thrown into the sea 60.000 tones of toxic waste. On daily basis 12.800 tones of acids reach Tinisia’s bay, results of the production of chemical fertilizers.

70 of the 200 most important fish species are endangered, according to FAO (world organisation of food and agriculture). However, fishermen’s number increases and the recent method of bottom trawling destroys whole marine ecosystems.

Ocean researchers discovered that the increasing air pollution prevents the coral reefs from growing.When CO2 reaches the water surface, it reacts,turning the water more acidic and harming corals. And as if this didn’t happen, scientists want to channel directly under the sea bed enormous quantities of CO2 to ease the atmosphere…

All this was only a part of the annual research of environmental organisations. And it doesn’t even mention domestic nor hospital waste. For those who haven’t understand how much we pollute our seas…

Image credit: Tres. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.