A new study led by researchers from Penn State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that marine heat waves may be endangering the health and survival of children living in coastal communities in low- and middle-income countries. These marine heat waves are periods during which ocean surface temperature remains abnormally elevated.
Climate change is affecting coastal communities that depend on the ocean for food or for their financial livelihood, with children being particularly vulnerable to these effects. Ocean warming thus has consequences that extend beyond marine water bodies, directly affecting human populations living in coastal areas who depend on marine resources for their survival.
