Climate Change and the Oceans

The King's Centre for Visualization in Science

This activity covers the role that the oceans may play in climate change and how climate change may affect the oceans. It is lesson 8 in a nine-lesson module Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change.

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Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

This activity includes mathematical equations and calculations. Educators may want to preview these prior to initiating student involvement to make sure students are adequately prepared. Educators should be familiar with the concepts covered in visuals prior to introducing the material to students, as some of them are not annotated (e.g. first video about thermohaline circulation).
This resource covers a variety of important scientific concepts, including ocean circulation, climate teleconnections, ocean carbon storage, the impacts of increasing temperatures on sea level rise, and the impacts of increasing atmospheric CO2 on ocean acidity levels. Comments from expert scientist: Good overview but does not reference or link to sources/scientific papers.
Excellent, self-guided activity that contains interactive visualizations and videos and also poses questions to students throughout. Activity walks users through the key concepts related to the ocean and atmosphere as a global regulators in the Earth's climate system. All embedded applets work and directly relate to user understanding the concepts more deeply.