Science Source

Decadal trends in Red Sea maximum surface temperature

States that ocean warming is a major consequence of climate change, the surface of the ocean having warmed by 0.11 °C per decade over the last 50 years
States that there is considerable variability in the rates experienced by different ocean regions, so understanding regional trends is important to inform on possible stresses for marine organisms
Notes that this is especially true in warm seas where organisms may be already operating in the high end of their thermal tolerance
Characterizes the Red Sea’s thermal regimes at the basin scale, with a focus on the spatial distribution and changes over time of sea surface temperature maxima, using remotely sensed sea surface temperature data from 1982 – 2015
Finds that the overall rate of warming for the Red Sea is 0.17 ± 0.07 °C per decade, while the northern Red Sea is warming between 0.40 and 0.45 °C per decade, all exceeding the global rate