Human-caused climate change has been identified as the primary factor behind record-breaking sea temperatures around Europe, with scientists warning that prolonged marine heat could have serious consequences for ecosystems and coastal communities.
European waters have experienced exceptional warmth alongside the extreme temperatures affecting much of the continent this summer. In July, the Mediterranean Sea averaged 27°C (81°F), its highest temperature ever recorded for the month.
Conditions became even more extreme in early August, when an offshore monitoring buoy near Mallorca registered 33°C.
An analysis by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group estimated that human-induced climate change has added approximately 2°C of warming to the Mediterranean and around 1.4°C to seas off Western Europe.
Researchers found that the peak temperatures observed this year in the eastern and western Mediterranean, Bay of Biscay and along the Iberian coast would have been “virtually impossible” in the absence of human-caused climate change.
Scientists warned that unusually warm seas can have effects extending well beyond marine environments, threatening fisheries, biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal populations, while potentially contributing to more damaging weather over land.
“This has the potential to completely reshape ecosystems that coastal communities rely on for food and income, and drive damaging extreme weather on land too,” said Claire Bergin, a climate scientist at Ireland’s Maynooth University and co-author of the study.
The findings add to growing evidence that rising global temperatures are significantly altering Europe’s marine environment, with increasingly intense and persistent marine heat events posing risks to both natural ecosystems and communities dependent on them.