Last year set a new annual heat record for the world's oceans, but early research for 2023 shows that we may already be on track to break that record.

Across all oceans except in polar regions, water temperature has increased by two-tenths of a degree Celsius – warmer than ever observed at this time of year. While the rise may seem insignificant, scientists warn that it could have severe consequences for the planet.

“Averaged over the planet, that’s a really big anomaly,” Alex Sen Gupta of Australia's University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Center told The Washington Post.

Temperatures have been steadily increasing for decades. Researchers say that the world's oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat within the planet's atmosphere in recent years, attributed to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently assessed that it is “extremely likely that human influence is the main driver" behind rising global temperatures, and that greenhouse gas emissions “are the main driver of current global acidification of the surface open ocean."

It isn't just surface temperatures that are rising either – deep ocean temperatures have risen, disrupting the circulation of deep ocean water. As currents from the ocean floor push nutrients closer to the surface, a slowdown is expected to rapidly melt arctic ice and potentially end an entire ecosystem that has helped to sustain life on Earth for over thousands of years.

While warmer water temperatures threaten marine life, melting arctic ice will raise sea levels, endangering coastal life and exacerbating flooding for human civilizations. Increased temperatures also have an impact on extreme weather.

“You’ve got this relentless rise of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” added Michael McPhaden, senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We just know unless that turns around in some way, we will continue to set records.”