EARTH.COM - The ocean has always shown clear signs of human impact. You see plastic floating, oil on the surface, and rising temperatures. Those are easy to notice. But there’s another change happening quietly, and it’s only now becoming clear.
Scientists studying seawater from around the world found something worrying. A large share of what we call organic matter in coastal oceans now comes from human-made chemicals.
You won’t see these drifting on the surface. They’re dissolved in the water, spread out, and carried across long distances.
That matters because organic matter helps keep ocean life going. It feeds tiny organisms, supports food chains, and plays a role in controlling carbon. When that balance shifts, the effects can be hard to predict.
Ocean data over a decade
To understand what’s happening, researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) pulled together more than 2,300 seawater samples collected over ten years.
The samples came from over 20 field studies across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.
“For decades, scientists have tracked plastic debris floating on the ocean’s surface and measured rising temperatures that signal climate change,” said Daniel Petras, an assistant professor of biochemistry at UCR.