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With the arrival of El Niño, prepare for stronger marine heatwaves

Record-high ocean temperatures, combined with a confluence of extreme climate and weather patterns, are pushing the world into uncharted waters. Researchers must help communities to plan how best to reduce the risks.
  1. Alistair J. Hobday

    1. Alistair J. Hobday is research director for sustainable marine futures at CSIRO Environment, Hobart, Australia.

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  2. Michael T. Burrows

    1. Michael T. Burrows is professor of marine ecology at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, UK.

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  3. Karen Filbee-Dexter

    1. Karen Filbee-Dexter is senior research fellow at UWA Oceans Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia, and at the Institute of Marine Research, Flødevigen Research Station, His, Norway.

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  4. Neil J. Holbrook

    1. Neil J. Holbrook is professor of ocean and climate dynamics at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

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  5. Alex Sen Gupta

    1. Alex Sen Gupta is associate professor of climate science at the Climate Change Research Centre, Centre for Marine Science & Innovation, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

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  6. Dan A. Smale

    1. Dan A. Smale is a senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK.

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  7. Kathryn E. Smith

    1. Kathryn E. Smith is a postdoctoral research assistant at the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK.

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  8. Mads S. Thomsen

    1. Mads S. Thomsen is senior lecturer in the Marine Ecology Research Group, Centre of Integrative Ecology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and in the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark.

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  9. Thomas Wernberg

    1. Thomas Wernberg is professor of marine ecology in the UWA Oceans Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia, and at the Institute of Marine Research, Flødevigen Research Station, His, Norway.

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A wide view of a snorkeler floating above major bleaching on a coral reef in French Polynesia

Bleached corals in the reefs of the Society Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Credit: Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty

Oceans are warming up, and dangerously so. Since April this year, the average global sea surface temperature has been unusually high and rising; by August, oceans in the Northern Hemisphere had reached record-high temperatures, even surpassing 38 °C in one area around Florida.

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Nature 621, 38-41 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02730-2

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Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary table, methods and references

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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