Marine heatwaves, prolonged periods of abnormal warming, and marine cold-spells, the corresponding cold extremes, have greater devastating impacts on marine ecosystem services and socioeconomic effects than overall warming. Although there is growing evidence of increasing marine heatwaves and an overall decreasing marine cold-spells worldwide, reasons for their changes in different ocean regions remain unclear. The purpose of this work is to examine the effects of temperature on marine heatwaves and marine cold-spells by using satellite-derived daily sea surface temperature (SST) data from Optimum Interpolated Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) dataset. We find an upward trend in the frequency, intensity, and number of days of marine heatwaves in all ocean basins, with the Arctic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean showing the greatest increase from 1982 to 2021. Marine cold spells, on the other hand, do not exhibit a declining trend in the number of days in Southern Ocean as a result of global warming and the intensity of most regions has increased, with the largest in the Arabian Sea. The main reason for the increase in frequency and days in most regions can be explained by long-term SST trends, while increases in maximum and cumulative intensity in the equatorial Pacific and North Atlantic are dominated by variability. The different dominant factors regulate marine heatwaves and cold-spells with different characteristics. Exploring different types of events can better formulate corresponding policies to reduce economic and ecological losses caused by extreme events and improve the accuracy of prediction in future predictions.