Mediterranean Sea warming, getting saltier faster than global average: WWF

A recent report by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) revealed that the Mediterranean Sea was warming faster than the global average, and becoming saltier as a result. The increase in water temperatures is also causing the "tropicalization" of the sea, the WWF report said, meaning that an increasing number of invasive species were spreading across the body of water.

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The Mediterranean Sea is warming faster than the global average, a recent report by the World Wildlife Foundation revealed, noting that the sharp increase in the water temperature was resulting in multiple nefarious effects in the body of water.

The increase in water temperatures is causing "tropicalization" of the Mediterranean, the report said, dubbing the phenomenon "an ongoing disaster" that threatened the local habitat.

"In the eastern Mediterranean, which is warming at a rate far above the global average, invasive tropical species – most of which arrived through the Suez Canal – are extending their distribution in line with the rising temperatures," the report said.

Tropical species arriving in the Mediterranean Sea are destructive to local "richly biodiverse algal forests," the report noted, adding that the destruction caused by the incoming species was not being reversed simultaneously.

"We are facing a huge threat to our economies, maens of living and the benefits of the Mediterranean," WWF Turkey General Director Aslı Pasinli told Deutsche Welle Turkish. 

Reducing human involvement is the way to reverse the phenomenon of the fast warming of the Mediterranean, Pasinli added.