An interesting article appeared in the British newspaper The Guardian today, highlighting recent research into the possible effects of climate change on the ocean’s salinity levels.
I guess at a very basic level I had always assumed that the hotter the climate, the greater the rate of evaporation, and hence the saltier the seas – however, being as the climate appears infinitely complex and my mind often appears infinitely small, it just never crossed my mind that it would turn out to be true! The work, carried out by the UK Met Office and Reading University ties in with another piece of research that we’ve highlighted within this site investigating the potential for rising CO2 levels to also increase the acidity of the world’s oceans.
While salt n’ vinegar maybe a favourite flavour of crisps in the UK, the long-term effects of potentially saltier & more acidic areas of ocean remain unknown; as we’ve discussed within these pages before, while change might have always been a constant in nature, it’s the rate of such human induced changes that may present the real challenge to the planet.