UNIVERSE OF NATURE

The world’s oceans are slowly losing their breath. Hidden beneath the waves, a dangerous environmental crisis is unfolding as oxygen levels in seawater decline across large regions of the planet. Scientists warn that ocean deoxygenation is becoming one of the greatest threats to marine biodiversity, fisheries, and coastal ecosystems. While climate change is widely associated with rising sea temperatures and stronger storms, fewer people realize that warming oceans also contain less oxygen. For marine animals, oxygen is just as essential underwater as it is for humans on land. Fish, squid, crabs, octopuses, coral reef species, and microscopic organisms all depend on dissolved oxygen to survive. As oxygen concentrations fall, marine ecosystems experience stress, habitat loss, migration changes, blindness in some species, reproductive failure, and even mass die-offs. The expansion of low-oxygen zones is transforming seas and oceans worldwide. Scientists now believe that ocean oxygen l...