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How Climate Change is Strangling our Oceans
YouTube: | https://youtube.com/watch?v=rIvt4s7CX2M |
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View count: | 91,702 |
Likes: | 4,424 |
Comments: | 239 |
Duration: | 05:20 |
Uploaded: | 2022-05-03 |
Last sync: | 2024-12-06 04:00 |
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Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate. | |
MLA Full: | "How Climate Change is Strangling our Oceans." YouTube, uploaded by SciShow, 3 May 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIvt4s7CX2M. |
MLA Inline: | (SciShow, 2022) |
APA Full: | SciShow. (2022, May 3). How Climate Change is Strangling our Oceans [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rIvt4s7CX2M |
APA Inline: | (SciShow, 2022) |
Chicago Full: |
SciShow, "How Climate Change is Strangling our Oceans.", May 3, 2022, YouTube, 05:20, https://youtube.com/watch?v=rIvt4s7CX2M. |
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Climate change has our oceans in jeopardy. The Labrador Sea between Canada & Greenland is known as "the ocean's lung" but it's struggling to breathe due to the effects of global warming. Join Michael Aranda for a dive into this vital part of the ocean's ecosystem, and what we need to do to save it.
SciShow is on TikTok! Check us out at https://www.tiktok.com/@scishow
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Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
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Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Mastanos, Sam Lutfi, Bryan Cloer, Kevin Bealer, Christoph Schwanke, Tomás Lagos González, Jason A Saslow, Tom Mosner, Jacob, Ash, Eric Jensen, Jeffrey Mckishen, Alex Hackman, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Piya Shedden, Jeremy Mysliwiec, Chris Peters, Dr. Melvin Sanicas, charles george, Adam Brainard, Harrison Mills, Silas Emrys, Alisa Sherbow
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Sources:
https://eos.org/articles/oxygen-levels-measured-in-a-lung-of-the-deep-ocean
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.2016.0321
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2017GB005829
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2007GC001604
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/97PA00581
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2006GL026815
https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/19/437/2022/
https://rwu.pressbooks.pub/webboceanography/chapter/9-8-thermohaline-circulation/
https://www.worldatlas.com/seas/labrador-sea.html
https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/2010/geo/state-area.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/Labrador-Sea
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171013113012.htm
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/brine_salinity.html
Images
https://www.gettyimages.com/
https://www.storyblocks.com/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Labrador-sea-paamiut.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS016-E-30638_-_View_of_the_Labrador_Sea.jpg
https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/52882/labrador-sea-ice
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3658
Climate change has our oceans in jeopardy. The Labrador Sea between Canada & Greenland is known as "the ocean's lung" but it's struggling to breathe due to the effects of global warming. Join Michael Aranda for a dive into this vital part of the ocean's ecosystem, and what we need to do to save it.
SciShow is on TikTok! Check us out at https://www.tiktok.com/@scishow
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Mastanos, Sam Lutfi, Bryan Cloer, Kevin Bealer, Christoph Schwanke, Tomás Lagos González, Jason A Saslow, Tom Mosner, Jacob, Ash, Eric Jensen, Jeffrey Mckishen, Alex Hackman, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Piya Shedden, Jeremy Mysliwiec, Chris Peters, Dr. Melvin Sanicas, charles george, Adam Brainard, Harrison Mills, Silas Emrys, Alisa Sherbow
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
SciShow Tangents Podcast: https://scishow-tangents.simplecast.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
#SciShow
----------
Sources:
https://eos.org/articles/oxygen-levels-measured-in-a-lung-of-the-deep-ocean
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.2016.0321
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2017GB005829
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2007GC001604
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/97PA00581
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1029/2006GL026815
https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/19/437/2022/
https://rwu.pressbooks.pub/webboceanography/chapter/9-8-thermohaline-circulation/
https://www.worldatlas.com/seas/labrador-sea.html
https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/2010/geo/state-area.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/Labrador-Sea
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171013113012.htm
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/brine_salinity.html
Images
https://www.gettyimages.com/
https://www.storyblocks.com/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Labrador-sea-paamiut.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISS016-E-30638_-_View_of_the_Labrador_Sea.jpg
https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/52882/labrador-sea-ice
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3658
Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this episode of SciShow.
Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to learn how you can take your STEM skills to the next level! [ ♩ INTRO ] The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, about twice the size of California. It lies between Canada and Greenland.
Because it’s so remote, you might not have spent a lot of time thinking about this body of water. But this remote sea plays a vital role in marine ecosystems. The Labrador Sea is also known as the ocean’s lung.
Thanks to a quirk of ocean currents, this sea is responsible for about half of the oxygen of all deep sea life in the Atlantic Ocean from the equator northward. And there’s some evidence that the ocean’s lung might be in a lot of trouble. The Labrador Sea brings oxygen to the deep through what’s called density-driven circulation, or the movement of seawater based on its density.
Although we often think of the entire ocean as being made of the same seawater, it’s actually made of a lot of different parcels of water, that might have different densities from each other. And just like oil and water, seawater tends to separate out into layers based on different densities. Less dense seawater naturally rises to the top, while denser seawater sinks to the bottom.
Seawater density is dependent on two things, temperature and salinity. The warmer a parcel of water is, the less dense it is. And the saltier a parcel of water is, the greater its density.
So cold, salty water tends to sink, but warm, less salty water rises. The Gulf Stream, which flows along the east coast of North America and into the Labrador Sea, is very salty. But because the Gulf Stream is also warm, its temperature keeps it just light enough to stay at the surface.
When that warm water hits the frigid climate of the Labrador Sea, though, it starts to cool. And since cold, salty water is extremely dense, it sinks, moving all the way down into the bottom of the ocean. But remember, just before that moment, the water was at the surface, in contact with the atmosphere.
It’s been absorbing gasses from the atmosphere, including oxygen. That oxygen stays in the seawater as it sinks, and gets brought down into the deep ocean. About two kilometers down, this seawater hits a mixing zone, which moves it south toward the equator.
There, that oxygen is consumed by deep sea organisms. Because the oceans are all connected, it could even make it all the way to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In fact, it’s estimated that the Labrador Sea provides the oxygen for somewhere between half to three-quarters of all deep sea life in the North Atlantic, between the equator and 50 degrees north.
And that’s only for the oxygen we’ve been able to trace, half of all the total oxygen that passes through the Labrador Sea. Scientists are still working out what happens to the other half, but it probably also disperses throughout the ocean. We just haven’t figured out its route or where it eventually ends up.
So this area is clearly vital to a lot of marine life. But there’s concern that climate change could affect how water, and thus, how oxygen moves through the Labrador Sea. That’s because the Labrador Sea is right next to Greenland, and the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting.
This is important because ice is almost always made up of freshwater. Under normal conditions, when seawater freezes, only freshwater becomes ice. The salts that were in the water stay dissolved in the seawater that remains.
So when ice sheets form, the remaining seawater is always saltier, because the same amount of salt is now dissolved in less water. And when they melt, the opposite happens. Freshwater comes back into the ocean, lowering the salinity.
Now remember that salt is one component of density, which is the only reason why that Gulf Stream water sinks in the first place. If that water gets diluted, there’s a chance that less of it will sink, which in turn, will bring less oxygen to the deep sea. This same issue might be affecting more than just the Labrador Sea.
Other areas in the world where density-driven circulation happens might also be affected by climate change, including other sources of deep sea oxygen. And remember, carbon dioxide is also a gas, which means it enters the ocean in the same way as oxygen. Currents like the one in the Labrador Sea don’t just bring oxygen to the deep ocean, they also take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hide it in the deep ocean where it can’t easily escape.
While this could be a big issue for deep sea life, because carbon dioxide also acidifies seawater, currents like this one are one of the reasons why the ocean has been so good at absorbing the carbon dioxide we’re putting into the atmosphere. So if systems like this weaken, the ocean could take up less carbon dioxide in the future, meaning global warming happens even faster. We still don’t know the extent of these changes, but this could end up having severe consequences for marine life, on top of all of the other challenges the ocean is facing from other aspects of climate change.
But it’s important to remember that we can still change things. Taking action on climate change can stop a lot of its worst effects from coming to pass, and can give the ocean a chance to catch its breath. Why not take a moment to catch your breath after this video, then learn something new with Brilliant?
They’ve got a new course called Everyday Math, which will help you sharpen the fundamentals of the math you actually want to use in real life, from percentages to geometric shapes. As their new most basic math course, it also builds a great foundation for the rest of their math content! And like all of their courses, it’s super interactive, engaging you the whole way along rather than just asking you to memorize stuff.
In addition to math, Brilliant also has a ton of science, engineering, and computer science courses, so you can always find something new to learn. To get started, head to brilliant.org/scishow to save 20% off an annual premium subscription to Brilliant. [ ♩ OUTRO ]
Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to learn how you can take your STEM skills to the next level! [ ♩ INTRO ] The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, about twice the size of California. It lies between Canada and Greenland.
Because it’s so remote, you might not have spent a lot of time thinking about this body of water. But this remote sea plays a vital role in marine ecosystems. The Labrador Sea is also known as the ocean’s lung.
Thanks to a quirk of ocean currents, this sea is responsible for about half of the oxygen of all deep sea life in the Atlantic Ocean from the equator northward. And there’s some evidence that the ocean’s lung might be in a lot of trouble. The Labrador Sea brings oxygen to the deep through what’s called density-driven circulation, or the movement of seawater based on its density.
Although we often think of the entire ocean as being made of the same seawater, it’s actually made of a lot of different parcels of water, that might have different densities from each other. And just like oil and water, seawater tends to separate out into layers based on different densities. Less dense seawater naturally rises to the top, while denser seawater sinks to the bottom.
Seawater density is dependent on two things, temperature and salinity. The warmer a parcel of water is, the less dense it is. And the saltier a parcel of water is, the greater its density.
So cold, salty water tends to sink, but warm, less salty water rises. The Gulf Stream, which flows along the east coast of North America and into the Labrador Sea, is very salty. But because the Gulf Stream is also warm, its temperature keeps it just light enough to stay at the surface.
When that warm water hits the frigid climate of the Labrador Sea, though, it starts to cool. And since cold, salty water is extremely dense, it sinks, moving all the way down into the bottom of the ocean. But remember, just before that moment, the water was at the surface, in contact with the atmosphere.
It’s been absorbing gasses from the atmosphere, including oxygen. That oxygen stays in the seawater as it sinks, and gets brought down into the deep ocean. About two kilometers down, this seawater hits a mixing zone, which moves it south toward the equator.
There, that oxygen is consumed by deep sea organisms. Because the oceans are all connected, it could even make it all the way to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In fact, it’s estimated that the Labrador Sea provides the oxygen for somewhere between half to three-quarters of all deep sea life in the North Atlantic, between the equator and 50 degrees north.
And that’s only for the oxygen we’ve been able to trace, half of all the total oxygen that passes through the Labrador Sea. Scientists are still working out what happens to the other half, but it probably also disperses throughout the ocean. We just haven’t figured out its route or where it eventually ends up.
So this area is clearly vital to a lot of marine life. But there’s concern that climate change could affect how water, and thus, how oxygen moves through the Labrador Sea. That’s because the Labrador Sea is right next to Greenland, and the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting.
This is important because ice is almost always made up of freshwater. Under normal conditions, when seawater freezes, only freshwater becomes ice. The salts that were in the water stay dissolved in the seawater that remains.
So when ice sheets form, the remaining seawater is always saltier, because the same amount of salt is now dissolved in less water. And when they melt, the opposite happens. Freshwater comes back into the ocean, lowering the salinity.
Now remember that salt is one component of density, which is the only reason why that Gulf Stream water sinks in the first place. If that water gets diluted, there’s a chance that less of it will sink, which in turn, will bring less oxygen to the deep sea. This same issue might be affecting more than just the Labrador Sea.
Other areas in the world where density-driven circulation happens might also be affected by climate change, including other sources of deep sea oxygen. And remember, carbon dioxide is also a gas, which means it enters the ocean in the same way as oxygen. Currents like the one in the Labrador Sea don’t just bring oxygen to the deep ocean, they also take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hide it in the deep ocean where it can’t easily escape.
While this could be a big issue for deep sea life, because carbon dioxide also acidifies seawater, currents like this one are one of the reasons why the ocean has been so good at absorbing the carbon dioxide we’re putting into the atmosphere. So if systems like this weaken, the ocean could take up less carbon dioxide in the future, meaning global warming happens even faster. We still don’t know the extent of these changes, but this could end up having severe consequences for marine life, on top of all of the other challenges the ocean is facing from other aspects of climate change.
But it’s important to remember that we can still change things. Taking action on climate change can stop a lot of its worst effects from coming to pass, and can give the ocean a chance to catch its breath. Why not take a moment to catch your breath after this video, then learn something new with Brilliant?
They’ve got a new course called Everyday Math, which will help you sharpen the fundamentals of the math you actually want to use in real life, from percentages to geometric shapes. As their new most basic math course, it also builds a great foundation for the rest of their math content! And like all of their courses, it’s super interactive, engaging you the whole way along rather than just asking you to memorize stuff.
In addition to math, Brilliant also has a ton of science, engineering, and computer science courses, so you can always find something new to learn. To get started, head to brilliant.org/scishow to save 20% off an annual premium subscription to Brilliant. [ ♩ OUTRO ]