A new study is warning that trace metals like lead, arsenic and mercury that are present in ocean water can become more toxic over time as factors like ocean warming and acidity can increase the bioavailability of these trace elements.

Although these elements can naturally occur in coastal areas, their concentrations have increased due to human activities like agriculture and industrial manufacturing. Now, scientists warn that problems such as ocean acidification and warming are further strengthening the toxicity and spread of trace elements, both from natural and human sources.

“Human activities have increased the global flow of toxic metals such as lead by tenfold and mercury by three to seven times compared to pre-industrial levels,” Sylvia Sander, professor of marine mineral resources at GEOMAR, said in a statement. “Toxic elements like silver are increasingly detectable in coastal waters, originating from coal combustion and the growing use of silver nanoparticles in antibacterial products.” 

The researchers found that the effects of rising sea levels, ocean warming, melting sea ice, drying river beds and ocean acidification could all play roles in the transport and accumulation of trace elements, particularly those that occur naturally. The researchers published their findings in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

^{Illustration of natural and anthropogenic sources, sinks and transport pathways of trace substances in coastal ecosystems that may interact with climate impacts. Red arrows indicate expected directions of change due to climate change. Zitoun et al. 2024}

But trace elements from human sources are also contaminating the environment, with heavy metals coming into the oceans from fossil fuel and industry activities. Further, shipping and plastics can also introduce more trace elements into the oceans, especially because plastics can bind certain metals, including lead and copper.

As ocean temperatures rise, the bioavailability of trace elements increases, meaning it becomes easier for marine life to absorb the trace elements, the researchers explained. Trace elements, especially copper, also experience an increase in bioavailability and solubility in the presence of more acidic water. Copper can become extremely toxic to marine life in higher concentrations. 

In a recent report on planetary vital signs, a team of international scientists confirmed that ocean warming and acidification had reached record extremes in recent years.

The authors of the new report on trace elements noted that there are still significant research gaps on how the effects of climate change could also impact ocean contaminants. In response, the study authors are calling for expanding the research on new and under-studied contaminants, expanding geographical research coverage, and establishing laws and risk assessments on trace elements.

“To better understand the impacts on ecosystems and human health, we need to close knowledge gaps on the interactions between pollutants and climate change and develop standardized methods that provide globally comparable data,” said Rebecca Zitoun, co-lead author of the study and a marine chemist at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.

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Despite international pledges to limit and reverse deforestation by the end of this decade, the world is seeing an increase in deforestation, a new report has found.

The 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment report revealed that globally, deforestation increased in 2023, with 6.37 million hectares lost, including 1.4 million hectares lost in key biodiversity areas. The deforestation of 2023 led to 3.8 billion metric tons of carbon emissions. If deforestation emissions were represented as a country, they’d be the fourth biggest emitter behind China, the U.S. and India, the assessment said.

According to the assessment, this puts the world about 45% off track from reaching the goals set during COP26 in 2021. During that conference, more than 140 countries had pledged to stop and reverse global deforestation by 2030.

Further, more than 62 million hectares of forests saw a decline in ecological integrity, moving from a higher to a lower ecological integrity class. This equates to an area about two times larger than Germany, the report authors said.

There are several factors contributing to the increasing deforestation, the report noted. The biggest cause is agriculture, with 57% of deforestation in the past 20 years linked to agricultural commodities.

Another issue is the reliance on and pressure from fossil fuels, which reached record high levels last year, and the extraction of minerals for increasing renewable energy production. According to the report, fossil fuels still make up 80% of the world’s energy supply, and this number may only decline to around 73% by the end of the decade. 

More renewable energy production will be necessary to save forests from the impacts of climate change, but the authors warned that there needs to be circular methods for recovering and reusing minerals to avoid further forest destruction for mineral extraction.

Climate change and intensifying forest fires play another role in global deforestation. According to the report, more than 138 million hectares of tree covers burned from 2001 to 2023, and 30% of that tree cover loss happened in just the past four years.

The report highlighted the need for improved policies for forest conservation and better protections for communities that safeguard forests. In particular, the assessment noted that changing political leadership in places like Bolivia, Indonesia, and the U.S. could have wide-reaching impacts on global deforestation. 

Brazil served as one example of political influence on deforestation in the report. In September 2023, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was down 66% compared to July 2022 under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in early 2023.

“Thanks to the strong political resolve of the Brazilian government under the Lula administration, forest conservation is now a top priority after having been deprioritized by the previous administration — further underscoring that progress is not linear and depends strongly on political will,” the authors wrote.

But in Brazil and globally, far more work is needed to get the world back on track to meet the 2030 pledges.

“One year’s or even one decade’s reduction in deforestation does not imply that long-term goals have been achieved,” the report concluded. “Curbing deforestation and degradation is an ongoing effort, not a one-time achievement. Accelerated progress is possible — if governments, financial actors, and corporations step up to the challenge.”

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According to the latest Ocean State Report (OSR 8) from EU Copernicus, the world’s oceans are experiencing rapid warming, increasing acidification, more marine heat waves and more algal blooms in recent years compared to previous decades.

In particular, the report highlighted that ocean warming has nearly doubled since 2005, and it had already been steadily increasing since 1960. The previous long-term rate of warming was at 0.58 watts per square meter. In the past two decades, that rate has reached 1.05 watts per square meter.

According to the report, 75% of northern hemisphere ocean surfaces are warming faster than the global average, while 35% of southern hemisphere ocean surfaces are warming faster than average. This warming leads to multiple disruptions to ecosystems, including increasing coastal erosion and flooding, decreasing sea ice and increasing tropical cyclone intensity. 

As the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported, hurricanes require water surface temperatures of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) and a storm or other weather disturbance that can pull in air. Studies have shown links between warming ocean surface temperatures and more intense tropical storms, a link that is supported by the latest Ocean State Report.

The Ocean State Report revealed several other concerning impacts of warming on global oceans, including more intense and deeper marine heat waves that reached as far as 1,500 meters below the ocean surface. As of last year, 22% of the global ocean surface experienced a severe to extreme marine heat wave.

Amid this level of ocean warming, sea ice has declined extensively, with a 4% loss per decade in the Arctic since 1979. In the Antarctic, sea ice loss reached a record low, with 1.9 million square kilometers of sea ice lost in 2023 compared to the average from 1993 to 2010. This Antarctic sea ice loss represents an area about three times larger than France.

Algal blooms are another problem brought on by changing ocean temperatures. In particular, an unexpected cold spell near Crete in 2022 led to a 50% more intense phytoplankton bloom than expected for the area. Extreme phytoplankton blooms can affect the entire ecosystem by blocking sunlight for marine life, and dying phytoplankton can further deplete oxygen in the water, worsening the acidification. According to OSR8, ocean acidification has increased 35% since 1985.

Another concern highlighted in the report is increasing wave heights, with the tallest 5% of waves globally reaching even greater heights in the past few years. Taller waves can increase risk of coastal flooding, coastal erosion, and destruction to coastal infrastructure. 

Some regions are already experiencing these impacts. As EU Copernicus reported, a storm brought 7-meter-tall waves that lasted more than 9 seconds in the port of Melilla, Spain in April 2022. 

“This, in turn, drove waves within the harbour to a record-breaking 1.41 m, disturbing maritime operations,” the report noted. “Simulations indicate that similar extreme waves are likely to happen in the region in 25 years time, significantly sooner than previous analysis suggested.”

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed new revisions and additions to critical habitats for West Indian manatees near Florida and Puerto Rico. 

The proposal includes a revised 1,904,191 acres for Florida manatees plus new habitat protections spanning 78,121 acres for Puerto Rico manatees.

“The Service is dedicated to the recovery and protection of manatees, which face significant threats such as declining food sources and water pollution,” southeast regional director Mike Oetker said in a statement. “Critical habitat designations ensure that federal agencies and the public are informed of the species habitat needs and better able to reduce threats and contribute to their long-term survival.”

As Inside Climate News reported, nearly 2,000 Florida manatees died from 2021 to 2022, and another 130 manatee calves have died in 2024. Part of the threat to these manatees is pollution, which has affected their food sources. Officials began a program to feed manatees seagrasses in 2021, which was deemed a success in 2022.

The proposal for new habitat protections focuses on seagrass as an essential element for the manatees’ survival, particularly for the Antillean manatee found near Puerto Rico.

But other threats loom for the vulnerable manatees. USFWS noted that habitat loss, coastal development and human interactions, including boat strikes, all threaten these animals. Climate change, which can contribute to algal blooms, is also a threat to the manatees. Further, climate change can contribute to increasing frequency and strength of hurricanes, such as Hurricane Helene currently moving through the Gulf Coast. 

As USA Today reported, hurricanes can cause manatee strandings, and they are also at risk from injury from storm-related debris in the water. Powerful hurricanes can also destroy the seagrasses that manatees depend on for food.

Manatees are protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), West Indian manatees — along with West African and Amazonian manatees — are considered vulnerable to extinction.

USFWS is accepting public comments on the proposal until November 25. In the meantime, as Hurricane Helene makes landfall, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is calling on the public to report any stranded or injured manatee sightings by calling 888-404-3922. The commission emphasized not to touch stranded wildlife.

“The best way people can stay safe and help wildlife under storm conditions is to be alert and give wildlife their space,” the commission said.

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Scientists have found that Earth may soon pass another planetary boundary, meaning it could be operating outside of the safe limits for seven of the nine defined planetary boundaries.

The Planetary Health Check report, prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is a new assessment that determines the state of the planetary boundaries. For its first edition, the report found that Earth is near the boundary for ocean acidification.

“Our updated diagnosis shows that vital organs of the Earth system are weakening, leading to a loss of resilience and rising risks of crossing tipping points,” said Levke Caesar, scientist at PIK and a lead author of the report.

The planetary boundaries are a framework in which Earth has nine major areas that it can operate safely: climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean acidification.

The framework was first developed in 2009 by Johan Rockström, former director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and current director of PIK, along with 28 scientists from around the world. When the framework was introduced, scientists determined that Earth had passed three boundaries, including climate change, biosphere integrity and biogeochemical flows.

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By 2023, scientists determined Earth had crossed three additional boundaries, including land-system change, freshwater use/change and novel entities, which includes plastics.

But now, ocean acidification is close to passing its boundary, putting marine life at risk. According to scientists, there are two main reasons for increasing ocean acidification.

“One is [that] the indicator for ocean acidification, which is the current aragonite saturation state, while still being in the safe operating space, is approaching the threshold of transgressing the safe boundary,” Caesar said, as reported by The Guardian. “The second is that there are actually several new studies that were published over the last years that indicate that even these current conditions may already be problematic for a variety of marine organisms, suggesting a need [to] re-evaluate which levels can actually be called safe.”

According to the data, climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical flows, and novel entities have breached into high-risk zones, and the six breached boundaries have all worsened since the last evaluation of the boundaries. The atmospheric aerosol loading boundary has improved slightly overall, but the authors warned that some areas are still seeing increases because of factors such as deforestation, industrial emissions and wildfires.

“The overall diagnostic is that the patient, Planet Earth, is in critical condition. Six of nine Planetary Boundaries are transgressed. Seven PB processes show a trend of increasing pressure so that we will soon see the majority of the Planetary Health Check parameters in the high-risk zone,” Rockström said of the most recent report.

Scientists plan to publish a Planetary Health Check report annually to monitor progress on the boundaries on the planetary boundaries and help work toward reversing human impact on the planet. Further, the Planetary Boundaries Science (PBScience) initiative led by Rockström will incorporate knowledge from Indigenous communities on how to be better stewards of the planet.

“For centuries, Indigenous Peoples have lived in harmony with the land, learning how to use the environment to support themselves and to replenish what is taken for the overall health of Earth,” Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of the Planetary Guardians, said in a statement. “We are killing ourselves with overdoses of chemicals, destruction of nature, skyrocketing temperatures, and increasing pollution. As industry has accelerated, Indigenous Peoples have seen their homes degraded and destroyed. It is imperative that this decline is reversed.”

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