What does this new study say about the changing color of the oceans due to climate change?

Over the last two decades, a change in the color of the oceans of the planet has been observed. A new study indicates that this change could most likely be a result of climate change caused by human activities. Around 56 percent of the oceans of the world have seen an alteration in their color.

The journal Nature has published an extensive study titled "Global climate-change trends detected in Indicators of ocean ecology". It was earlier in July that the study was published. The study was conducted by Stephanie Henson and BB Cael, of the National Oceanography Centre based in the United Kingdom, Stephanie Dutkiewicz from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), Kelsey Bission of the Oregon State University (USA) and Emmanuel Boss from the University of Maine (USA). These researchers found out that while, fortunately, this change in the color of the oceans doesn't actually have a direct impact on marine life, the color change points out the fact that the marine ecosystem of these oceans is actually in a state of flux. Moreover, they can also go completely out of balance in the coming time, and that may severely impact ocean life. Clearly, human life dependent on the marine ecosystem will also get affected by this change. The lead author of the study, BB Cael mentions that such a change in these ecosystems can affect their productivity. This could further affect the amount of carbon the oceans stores, along with affecting the amount of food supply present for the fisheries.

What is the exact reason behind the change of colors of the oceans?

Have a look at the oceans of the world and you will find that most of them are navy blue or blue in color. The blue color is due to the absorption and scattering of light, as per a NASA report.

However, when the water isn't clean or deep, the color of the ocean could change. “The color changes are complex and different in different locations. In general, we see an increase in the amount of green light coming off the ocean, but in some places, we see more change in some green wavelengths than others, in some places we see increases or decreases in different red or blue wavelengths,” explains Cael.

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