Almost all life in the ocean depends on the upper waters where sunlight filters in, known as the photic zone – but new research suggests this narrow window of valuable marine light is shrinking ...

The vast, sunlit waters of the ocean’s surface, known as the photic zone, nurture 90% of marine life. Sunlight and moonlight in this crucial region guide marine creatures and maintain global ...

Over the past two decades, more than one-fifth of the world's oceans, an area exceeding 75 million square kilometers, have ...

Between 2003 and 2022, 21% of the ocean darkened, including in usually sunny coastal zones. And throughout 32 million square kilometers (12.4 million square miles, or nearly a tenth) of the ocean ...

The depths of the ocean are broken into zones. The euphotic zone, or "sunlight zone," extends down to about 656 feet and is where sunlight can penetrate, so plants like phytoplankton and macro ...

Using data from 2003 to 2022, the team found nearly 10% of the ocean’s photic zone has been squeezed by 50 m (164 ft). More dramatically, photic zones in some oceans have shrunk by 100 m (328 ft).

Ocean darkening occurs when changes in the optical properties of the ocean reduce the depth of its photic zones, home to 90% of all marine life and places where sunlight ... ocean, animals that ...

Is the ocean getting darker? New research found 21% of the global ocean had experienced a reduction in the depth of its lit zones, which are home to 90% of all marine life, during the past 20 years ...

This change, known as ocean darkening, happens when the upper layers of the ocean reduce the depth to which sunlight can travel. The study found that in some regions, light penetration has dropped ...

For instance, a variety of plants and animals thrive in the epipelagic, or sunlight, zone—the top layer of water, ... zone, at a spot 12,400 feet below the ocean’s surface.

The researchers found that more than nine percent of the ocean had seen its lit zones reduced by more than 50 meters, and just under three percent saw them reduced by more than 100 meters (109 yards).