Global warming drives a threefold increase in persistence and 1 ^°C rise in intensity of marine heatwaves.

ABSTRACT: Marine heatwaves are extreme climatic events consisting of persistent periods of warm ocean waters that have profound impacts on marine life. These episodes are becoming more intense, longer, and more frequent in response to anthropogenic global warming. Here, we provide a comprehensive and quantitative assessment on the role of global warming on marine heatwaves. To do so, we construct a counterfactual version of observed global sea surface temperatures since 1940, corresponding to a stationary climate without the effect of long-term increasing global temperatures, and use it to calculate the contribution of global air temperature rise on the intensity and persistence of marine heatwaves. We determine that global warming is responsible for nearly half of these extreme events and that, on

SUBMITTER: Marcos M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12037066 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature