© 2025 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

What Climate Change And Warmer Oceans Mean For Deep-Sea Life

Published September 14, 2017 at 12:40 PM EDT
This April 24, 2016 image made available by NOAA shows a bioluminescent jellyfish during a deepwater exploration of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument area in the Pacific Ocean near Guam and Saipan. Dives in the expedition ranged from 250 to 6,000 meters (820 feet to 3.7 miles) deep. (NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research via AP)
This April 24, 2016 image made available by NOAA shows a bioluminescent jellyfish during a deepwater exploration of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument area in the Pacific Ocean near Guam and Saipan. Dives in the expedition ranged from 250 to 6,000 meters (820 feet to 3.7 miles) deep. (NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research via AP)

Warmer oceans are creating bigger and more destructive storms, as we saw with Harvey and Irma. Sea surface temperatures have been consistently higher over the last 30 years than at any time since measurements began in the 1880s.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson asks Andrew Sweetman, associate professor at the Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Science and Technology at Heriot-Watt University, how warmer surface temperatures are affecting the ocean floor and the deepest parts of the ocean.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Local News