Waters around New Zealand’s South Island are as much as 6 degrees Celsius (42.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal due to climate change, the weather phenomenon La Nina and a series of high pressure systems, according to scientists.
Metservice oceanographer Joao de Souza, who is part of the Moana Project, said that waters around the southern South Island were all well above normal for this time of year with temperatures in Fiordland 6 degrees warmer than normal.
The Moana Project said that water temperatures on the West Coast of the South Island are currently 4 degrees above average.
These temperatures are going to have significant consequence for an eco system that is built or adapted to cold waters, he said.
"There are always going to be winners and losers," he said, with those marine species that can't shift location likely to be more impacted.
New Zealand saw a number marine heatwaves last year with a previous heatwave in Fiordland resulting in severe bleaching of native sponges. There have also been anecdotes of species more common in warmer waters of New Zealand being spotted further south.
De Souza said their research showed that it was not just surface water temperatures that were rising but also water as deep as 100 meters, which meant the marine heatwave was impacting species who lived in deeper water.
The marine heatwave comes as a La Niña weather pattern has caused warmer than normal temperatures in New Zealand's South Island. This along with high pressure systems and climate change were factors in the heatwave, said de Souza.
He added that they expected marine temperatures to remain above normal until at least April.
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
7 Comments
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Eastman
again.
climate change.
change enviroment for climate change.
you wrote all time about same topic-what enviroment???
1glenn
Call a spade a spade; it is Global Warming, not climate change.
If half the Earth were cooling, while the other half were warming, then the term climate change would be appropriate. That is not what is happening. Everywhere on Earth is seeing annual temperature increases.
The term Global Warming may be scary to use, but it is accurate.
Strangerland
Except you didn't call a spade a spade, it's climate change. It's why we see stronger storms and weather events, not just heating. That's why the scientists, who study this stuff, switched from using the term global warming to climate change.
kaimycahl
Why not Environmental Change!!
albaleo
That's not my understanding. We used to hear the term Anthropogenic Global Warming (APG) from scientists. But some would doubt the "warming" bit if their local temperatures got colder, and so I think it was the not-so-scientific who introduced the term Climate Change.
The climate is always changing. But the man-made contribution is what is of concern. I prefer the term global warming to climate change, but I think APG is better still.
Strangerland
That's not my understanding. We used to hear the term Anthropogenic Global Warming (APG) from scientists. But some would doubt the "warming" bit if their local temperatures got colder, and so I think it was the not-so-scientific who introduced the term Climate Change.
Nope. The term first was coined by a scientist in 1975:
Link: https://gpm.nasa.gov/education/articles/whats-name-global-warming-vs-climate-change
The National Academies are were pushing the term in 2005:
An organization of scientists.
Link: https://www.preventionweb.net/files/2276_climatechangefinal.pdf
And why they aren't interchangeable:
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-difference-between-global-warming-and-climate-change
albaleo
@Strangerland,
I don't strongly disagree on this, and I agree they aren't interchangeable. I can understand that climate change is a result of global warming, and it is those changes that will affect us. But climate change can result from other factors. Your last link included this:
Climate change, on the other hand, can mean human-caused changes or natural ones, such as ice ages.
I think it is the human-caused changes that are of concern. And those are mainly from global warming caused by human activity - Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming ( AGW - sorry about my earlier errors with the initials). As many will say, the climate is always changing. But is it not the warming caused by human activity that is the focus of current concerns?