A recent worldwide study led by researchers from the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory finds that more than 20 per cent of the world’s oceans, equating to about 75 million square kilometres, have gotten darker in the past two decades, a phenomenon known as ocean darkening.

WHAT IS OCEAN DARKENING?

Ocean darkening refers to changes in water clarity that reduce the depth of the photic zone, i.e., the sunlit layer of the ocean where 90 per cent of marine life lives and where sunlight and moonlight trigger ecological interactions.

For their paper, scientists used satellite and numerical data to track changes in the photic zone between 2003 and 2022.

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They found that 21 per cent of the global ocean has darkened, and more than 9 per cent -- or 32 million sq

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