A marine heatwave could reach “extreme” levels around parts of the UK later this week, according to the Met Office, raising concerns for marine life.<\/p>\n
Long periods of sea heat can trigger mass die-offs among some seagrasses, shellfish and other species, as well as encouraging greater numbers of warm-water creatures including octopus.<\/p>\n
The heatwave is currently strongest off the coasts of eastern and southern England, and sea temperatures could reach 4-5C above average in places. <\/p>\n
The marine heatwave has been fuelled by the “heat domes” that brought record-breaking air temperatures in May and June, on top of long-term ocean warming due to climate change.<\/p>\n
Important marine habitats such as seagrasses and kelp forests are suited to cooler waters and can experience high levels of heat stress when temperatures surge.<\/p>\n
This can reduce their growth or even lead to mass mortality events, which could have knock-on effects for species that rely on these habitats.<\/p>\n
The UK has experienced marine heatwaves – prolonged periods of unusually high sea surface temperatures – before. <\/p>\n
But scientists fear this event could be particularly intense and long-lasting, particularly for parts of the English Channel and the southern North Sea.<\/p>\n
“We’re starting to see temperatures now that we would expect to see at the height of summer, [at the] end of August,” said Dr Zoe Jacobs of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.<\/p>\n
“So, if this event keeps coming\u2026 we might start seeing some serious impacts on ecological systems.”<\/p>\n
The Met Office said that small pockets off the coast of Brittany had entered “extreme” marine heatwave conditions as of Tuesday. <\/p>\n
The heatwave is expected to strengthen over the coming days, with areas closer to the UK potentially reaching “extreme” conditions too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A marine heatwave could reach “extreme” levels around parts of the UK later this week, according to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-686789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}