{"id":50251,"date":"2025-06-14T11:18:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T05:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=50251"},"modified":"2025-06-14T15:03:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T09:33:48","slug":"what-is-ocean-darkening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-ocean-darkening\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Ocean Darkening?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Ocean Darkening Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new study seems to suggest that more than one-fifth of the global ocean has considerably darkened in the last two decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Ocean Darkening<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Darkening of the ocean is essentially <\/span><b>shrinking of the photic zones<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or those layers of water where sunlight can pass and induce the process of photosynthesis which is key to all biological processes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The photic layers can go <\/span><b>down to about 200 meters <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and they also act as a base for nearly 90 per cent of the world\u2019s marine life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This layer is responsible for <\/span><b>increasing the productivity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the ocean which also involves <\/span><b>regulating climate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and even supporting <\/span><b>global fisheries or related activities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new study seems to suggest that more than one-fifth of the global ocean has considerably darkened in the last two decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why is Ocean Darkening happening?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>coastal zones,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> darkening is usually due to <\/span><b>higher runoff of agricultural nutrients<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, organic matter, and sediments into the ocean with rain which directly promotes algal blooms that block light.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>In the open ocean<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the likely causes are <\/span><b>changes in plankton dynamics<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, increase in <\/span><b>sea surface temperature<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and changes in <\/span><b>ocean circulation.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Impacts of Ocean Darkening<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The contraction of photic zones may <\/span><b>lead to fundamental shifts in marine ecosystems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Those species that use sunlight and moonlight cues to feed, move, hide, and reproduce will be competing for shallower zones.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This <\/span><b>might upset marine food webs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that are already working hard against an ecosystem with minimal fishing activity.<\/span><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/technology\/science\/global-oceans-darkening-disrupting-life-beneath-surface-10036814\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ocean darkening refers to the shrinking of the ocean\u2019s photic zones, reducing sunlight penetration and affecting marine ecosystems and photosynthesis. Read more about Ocean Darkening Definition, Causes, Impact, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[837,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-50251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-ocean-darkening","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}