The planets oceans were the warmest in recorded history in 2019, according to a new analysis published Monday .

An international team of researchers analyzed temperature data from sources around the globe and issued a dramatic warning that climate change is already deeply affecting whats seen as the storage facility for any excess heat generated by a warming world. Hotter oceans are threatening marine biodiversity and the planets fisheries. Theyre melting land and sea ice at a breakneck pace and fueling more severe storms and flooding.

It is critical to understand how fast things are changing, John Abraham, a professor at the University of St. Thomas and a co-author of the paper, said in a news release Monday. The key to answering this question is in the oceans thats where the vast majority of heat ends up. If you want to understand global warming, you have to measure ocean warming.

The study was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

The news follows a string of troubling environmental news: Last week, European researchers said 2019 was the second-hottest year on record, and the 2010s had officially become the hottest decade ever recorded. And in September, the United Nations climate change body found that the planets oceans and ice sheets were changing in unprecedented and shocking ways that could soon affect hundreds of millions of people living in low-lying or coastal areas.

The latest research relies heavily on a state-of-the-art network of more than 3,800 floats that measure sea temperatures, a project known as Argo . The devices are deployed around the globe.