Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Ongoing Darkening of Global Oceans - Enormous Disruption to Albedo, Phytoplankton, and Web of Life
Sometimes a peer-reviewed scientific paper comes along that has Earth-Shattering implications. A few months ago, such a paper was published. The concept of "Ocean Darkening" immediately triggered my radar, especially since my life before climate change was laser optics and the physics of light and electromagnetic radiation.
Basically, vast regions of the global oceans are becoming darker. Thus, albedo is being reduced, and of course this leads to more sunlight absorption and less reflection, warming the Earth in every increasing amounts. Not only that, but there are profound implications to the ocean web of life. Phytoplankton only grow near the ocean surface in the presence of oxygen, nutrients, and sunlight. Sunlight penetration into the open ocean extends downward through the water column up to 200 meters depth, where water properties extinguish the light with greater depths. This upper layer, the photic zone, is where phytoplankton plants grow, and the largest daily migration of life on the planet is the zooplankton animals that hide down below in the day, and migrate upwards at night to the photic zone to munch on the phytoplankton.
Essentially, a darkening ocean means that the depth of the photic zone reduces, so the phytoplankton blooms can only occur much closer to the surface, making it harder for the zooplankton to reach, and the increasing water temperatures and stratification (less vertical mixing) means that less nutrients upwell into the photic zone. Bad news for the entire web of life in the oceans.
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
References:
Wikipedia: Photic Zone of the ocean
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_zone
Wikipedia: Beer-Lambert Law, more commonly known as Beer's Law describes how light absorption increases exponentially as the light penetrates into a material like water
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer%E2%80%93Lambert_law
Google Earth: Gulf of Bothnia, where the darkening of the ocean is most severe in the last 2 decades
earth.google.com/web/search/Gulf+of+Bothnia/@62.27309816,18.75633821,-444.10468906a,3215132.07455099d,35y,0.00002594h,0.24932494t,0r/data=Cn4aUBJKCiUweDQ2NjQ3NjkwYmVlZDIxMzc6MHg5ZTcyMWM1OTkwODM3YTk1GeeIfJdSC09AIey7IvjfZjNAKg9HdWxmIG9mIEJvdGhuaWEYAiABIiYKJAk4rcMIAp1FQBFsq0gt93IyQBn74mvhs4E9QCErWzFNcxRjwEICCAEyKQonCiUKITFpcXVxOVlwTnI3VWxhZzRfS2xXVlJBaUd4QU52RzNFWSABOgMKATBCAggASggIxoar6AQQAQ
Diel Definition: google.com/search?q=diel&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Recent Peer=Reviewed Scientific Paper in Global Change Biology"
Title: Darkening of the Global Ocean
ABSTRACT
The photic zones of the oceans—where sunlight and moonlight drive ecological interactions—are one of the most productive habitats on the planet and fundamental to the maintenance of healthy global biogeochemical cycles. Ocean darkening occurs when changes in the optical properties of the oceans reduce the depth to which sufficient light penetrates to facilitate biological processes guided by sunlight and moonlight. We analyzed a 9 km resolution annual time series of MODIS Aqua's diffuse attenuation coefficient of light at 490 nm [Kd (490)] to quantify whether the oceans have darkened over the last 20 years and the impact of this on the depth of photic zones around the world. Kd (490) increased across 75,341,181 km 2 (21%) of the global ocean between2003 and 2022, resulting in photic zone depths reducing by more than 50 m across 32,449,129 km 2 (9%) by area. The depth of the photic zone has reduced by more than 10% across 32,446,942 km 2 (9%) of the global ocean. Our analysis indicates that ocean darkening is not restricted to coastal regions, but affects large swathes of the open ocean. A combination of nutrient, organic material and sediment loading near the coasts and changes in global ocean circulation are probable causes of increases in primary and secondary productivity that have reduced light penetration into surface waters. The implications of ocean darkening for marine ecology and the ecosystem services provided by the surface oceans are currently unknown but likely to be severe.
Link to Open-Source, Free paper: Definitely, a must read, profound paper
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.70227
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Ongoing Darkening of Global Oceans - Enormous Disruption to Albedo, Phytoplankton, and Web of Life
Sometimes a peer-reviewed scientific paper comes along that has Earth-Shattering implications. A few months ago, such a paper was published. The concept of "Ocean Darkening" immediately triggered my radar, especially since my life before climate change was laser optics and the physics of light and electromagnetic radiation.
Basically, vast regions of the global oceans are becoming darker. Thus, albedo is being reduced, and of course this leads to more sunlight absorption and less reflection, warming the Earth in every increasing amounts. Not only that, but there are profound implications to the ocean web of life. Phytoplankton only grow near the ocean surface in the presence of oxygen, nutrients, and sunlight. Sunlight penetration into the open ocean extends downward through the water column up to 200 meters depth, where water properties extinguish the light with greater depths. This upper layer, the photic zone, is where phytoplankton plants grow, and the largest daily migration of life on the planet is the zooplankton animals that hide down below in the day, and migrate upwards at night to the photic zone to munch on the phytoplankton.
Essentially, a darkening ocean means that the depth of the photic zone reduces, so the phytoplankton blooms can only occur much closer to the surface, making it harder for the zooplankton to reach, and the increasing water temperatures and stratification (less vertical mixing) means that less nutrients upwell into the photic zone. Bad news for the entire web of life in the oceans.
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
References:
Wikipedia: Photic Zone of the ocean
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_zone
Wikipedia: Beer-Lambert Law, more commonly known as Beer's Law describes how light absorption increases exponentially as the light penetrates into a material like water
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer%E2%80%93Lambert_law
Google Earth: Gulf of Bothnia, where the darkening of the ocean is most severe in the last 2 decades
earth.google.com/web/search/Gulf+of+Bothnia/@62.27309816,18.75633821,-444.10468906a,3215132.07455099d,35y,0.00002594h,0.24932494t,0r/data=Cn4aUBJKCiUweDQ2NjQ3NjkwYmVlZDIxMzc6MHg5ZTcyMWM1OTkwODM3YTk1GeeIfJdSC09AIey7IvjfZjNAKg9HdWxmIG9mIEJvdGhuaWEYAiABIiYKJAk4rcMIAp1FQBFsq0gt93IyQBn74mvhs4E9QCErWzFNcxRjwEICCAEyKQonCiUKITFpcXVxOVlwTnI3VWxhZzRfS2xXVlJBaUd4QU52RzNFWSABOgMKATBCAggASggIxoar6AQQAQ
Diel Definition: google.com/search?q=diel&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Recent Peer=Reviewed Scientific Paper in Global Change Biology"
Title: Darkening of the Global Ocean
ABSTRACT
The photic zones of the oceans—where sunlight and moonlight drive ecological interactions—are one of the most productive habitats on the planet and fundamental to the maintenance of healthy global biogeochemical cycles. Ocean darkening occurs when changes in the optical properties of the oceans reduce the depth to which sufficient light penetrates to facilitate biological processes guided by sunlight and moonlight. We analyzed a 9 km resolution annual time series of MODIS Aqua's diffuse attenuation coefficient of light at 490 nm [Kd (490)] to quantify whether the oceans have darkened over the last 20 years and the impact of this on the depth of photic zones around the world. Kd (490) increased across 75,341,181 km 2 (21%) of the global ocean between2003 and 2022, resulting in photic zone depths reducing by more than 50 m across 32,449,129 km 2 (9%) by area. The depth of the photic zone has reduced by more than 10% across 32,446,942 km 2 (9%) of the global ocean. Our analysis indicates that ocean darkening is not restricted to coastal regions, but affects large swathes of the open ocean. A combination of nutrient, organic material and sediment loading near the coasts and changes in global ocean circulation are probable causes of increases in primary and secondary productivity that have reduced light penetration into surface waters. The implications of ocean darkening for marine ecology and the ecosystem services provided by the surface oceans are currently unknown but likely to be severe.
Link to Open-Source, Free paper: Definitely, a must read, profound paper
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.70227
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
