India, Feb. 20 -- Marine mammals in the Arctic and Subarctic regions suffer from both short-term as well as long-term impacts of marine heat waves (MHWs), a new study has warned.

Increased mortality, decreased reproductive rates, and susceptibility to disease are some of the impacts of MHWs on marine mammals of the Arctic, as per the study.

The Arctic Ocean is predicted to be a future MHW hotspot. These are periods where ocean temperatures substantially exceed historical norms in a given region, with durations ranging from several days to in some cases, years.

An MWH can span from a few to thousands of kilometres.

According to the researchers, an MWH happens when anomalies in sea surface temperature (SST) surpass their local 90th perc...