UP scientists develop online marine heatwave tracker

Marine scientists from the University of the Philippines Diliman have developed an online tool that could monitor ocean temperatures. 

The Marine Heatwave Tracker provides daily updates on temperatures across Philippine seas using the latest sea temperatures from the Global Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Ice Analysis (OSTIA) Near Real Time (NRT)  system, courtesy of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service. 

“Heatwaves don’t only occur on land — they can happen in the ocean too. Abnormally high sea surface temperatures pose serious threats to marine life, fisheries, and coral reef ecosystems. To develop strategies against marine heatwaves, it is crucial to know when and where they happen,” the UP Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) said in a statement. 

The online tracker is now accessible, and user-friendly features will soon be available. 

https://mhwtracker.science.upd.edu.ph/ 

The tracker was developed by Cristan Dave Zablan, Rachel Francisco, and Charina Lyn Amedo-Repollo at UP-MSI’s Physical Oceanography and Observation Laboratory. 

Meanwhile, scientists from the United Kingdom earlier bred corals that can survive intense marine heatwaves amid climate change.

“We conducted two experimental trials to selectively breed either for tolerance to a short-term 1-week +3.5°C stress or a long-term 1-month +2.5°C stress, with the latter being more typical of marine heatwave conditions,” the study read.

“This allowed us to estimate the genetic correlation between both traits and so determine whether selecting on short-term heat stress tolerance is expected to also enhance long-term stress tolerance,” it added. “This matters because short-term stress tolerance is easier to assay in practice and so select upon, but may be less critical to the survival of corals in nature.” — BAP, GMA Integrated News