Researchers with NOAA discovered the color of oceans plays a key role in determining the number and intensity of hurricanes.

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Put simply, it's related to chlorophyll, the pigment which allows phytoplankton to harvest the sun's energy. Thus, greener ocean color means warmer surface temps, more intense hurricanes, and more of them.

Yet despite record hurricanes, phytoplankton populations have been declining over the last century, so what gives? Also, many factors other than sunlight affect phytoplankton populations, including concentrations of nutrients, water temps, accelerants such as phospates, decelerants such as toxins, and the water temp itself.