An “exceptional” marine heat wave is gripping the western Mediterranean, with surface temperatures up to 5°C hotter than average, experts said.
Although the record-breaking heat wave that baked northern Europe and Britain this month has subsided, the experts said the persistently above-normal Mediterranean temperatures posed a threat to the entire marine ecosystem.
“This huge marine heat wave began in May in the Ligurian sea” between Corsica and Italy, said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at the non-profit research group Mercator Ocean International.
Photo: AFP
It then spread to the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea, she said. By July, the heat wave had engulfed the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
“The surface temperature anomaly map shows higher than normal values, in the order of +4 to +5C from the east of the Balearic Islands to the east of Corsica,” Mercator said in a statement.
While humans might find the warmer water temperatures pleasant in the tourist hotspots of the western Mediterranean, the group warned that “ocean warming impacts the entire ecosystem.”
“It is important to be aware of the possible consequences for local fauna and flora, as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events that could result in natural disasters,” it said.
Von Schuckmann said that unusually warm temperatures could cause irreversible migration for some species and “mass die-offs” for others.
Knock-on effects would impact industries such as tourism and fishing, which rely on favorable water conditions, she said.
According to the UN’s climate science body, marine heat waves have doubled in frequency globally since 1980.
Although the Mediterranean only counts for one percent of Earth’s ocean surface area, it contains nearly 20 percent of all known marine species.
A study published this month in the journal Global Change Biology found that the Mediterranean had experienced five consecutive years of mass mortality events from 2015 to 2019.
France’s CNRS research center has noted that marine heat waves in 1999, 2003 and 2006 caused mass die-offs for some species.
“We can predict the main impact will be on fixed organisms such as plants or corals,” said Charles-Francois Boudouresque, a marine ecologist at Aix-Marseille University.
However, some species of fish, such as the barracuda, could become more abundant in warming northern Mediterranean waters.
Boudouresque said some species coming through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea could become problematic “within five to 10 years.”
These include herbivore jellyfish and the rabbit fish, which Boudouresque described as “extremely greedy.”
Already abundant in the eastern Mediterranean, its appearance in western waters would threaten the algae forests that serve as nurseries for myriad varieties of fish. Jellyfish can also sting swimmers with enough severity to require hospital treatment.
As there is little governments can do once a marine heat wave takes hold, Von Schuckmann said the best course of action is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to warming.
“Even if we stopped emitting today, the oceans, which contain 90 percent of Earth’s heat, will continue to warm,” she said.
“Since at least 2003 [marine heat waves] have become more common, and in future they will last longer, cover more sea, and be more intense and severe,” Von Schuckmann said.
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