Ecological Impacts Of Climate Change

The rising carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities continues to affect our atmosphere, resulting in global warming and climate change. This carbon dioxide is also altering the chemistry of the oceans, causing them to become more acidic. From scientists and marine resource managers, to policy and decision-makers, there is growing concern that the process called ocean acidification could have drastic consequences on marine ecosystems. Such as altering species composition, disrupting marine food webs and ecosystems and harming fishing, tourism and other human activities connected to the sea.

Ocean Acidification is a process that occurs everyday and majorly affects our planet, but most people don’t even realize it exists. Though it can technically be argued that Ocean Acidification has some benefits for the planet, most of the time the effects of this process are very poor and negatively affect the entire world around us. Human evolution has played a major role in contributing to Ocean Acidification. Whenever humans use energy we release Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere or also known as CO2. This can be in the form of burning fossil fuels from the ground or the removal of national forest by burning. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which means whenever we can emit it in large quantities or unnatural amounts it can have negative effects on the atmosphere. These high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere result in climate change and more specifically Ocean Acidification. Ocean Acidification occurs when excess Carbon Dioxide is absorbed into the ocean. When this process takes place it can completely disturb the chemical balances of the water. For example, it can reduce pH levels, Biodiversity, and the abundance of calcifying species.

This increase in oceanic inorganic carbon has offset the seawater carbonate chemistry by causing increasing concentrations of CO2 and bicarbonate, while causing decreasing concentrations of carbonate and pH levels (Dedmer 2013). Rost and colleagues (2008) express that emissions of fossil fuel have caused an immense increase in the levels of atmospheric CO2, which are then deposited into the surface water of oceans. This increase in carbonic acid is in turn decreasing the pH balance, which poses a threat to marine organisms.

“How acidification threatens ocean from the inside out: Carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic, imperiling the growth and reproduction of species from plankton to squid”, by Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina addresses the dangers of increasing acidity in the ocean caused by carbon dioxide. Hardt, a research scientist and writer, is the founder of Ocean Ink. Safina, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, is the founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute.

Ocean acidification is known as a significant and destructive issue of a substantial amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere and settles in the ocean. Humans are not able to see or feel this happening based on the fact its process only occurs underwater. Each day the ocean consumes twenty two million tons of carbon dioxide, which originates from burning fossil fuels and destruction of park trees. Carbon dioxide fuses with water, which then generates it to become

The Earth is a very miniscule piece in a much grander puzzle called the universe. Within that tiny rock in space are complicated systems that help to sustain life. The atmosphere surrounding us is a mixture of many different components. It is composed of roughly 78% nitrogen, about 21% oxygen, and about 1% other, which includes carbon, the most fundamental element on Earth (Hopkins 2010). Carbon is present in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (Hopkins 2010). Carbon dioxide may have a small presence in the earth 's atmosphere but it plays an important role in the processes within the ocean, having a huge influence over the chemistry of seawater carbonate and its equilibrium process (Hopkins 2010). One way it impacts the ocean is via a process called ocean acidification. Carbon dioxide is a compound that can be found in nature, but the elevated carbon dioxide levels caused by humans can have a lot of unintended consequences, particularly to the seawater carbonate chemistry (Hopkins 2010).

Ocean acidification is the constant increase of acidity in the Earth’s oceans, caused by the unceasingly rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Anthropogenic CO2 is mainly emitted by the burning of fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas. Since the

Ocean acidification is the decrease in the acidity levels of the Earth 's oceans, caused by the intake of carbon dioxide emitted in to the environment and atmosphere. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel-powered machines have increased human technology and advancement. However, this has caused the emissions, large amounts of carbon dioxide, deforestation, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Ocean acidification, in turn, has created a benefit to us by slowing down climate change by absorbing the emissions in the water that have remained in the air. However, studies are now starting to show that the massive amounts of carbon dioxide in the water bodies are altering the water chemistry and affecting the biodiversity and life cycles of many marine organisms, especially those at the lower end of the food chain. Other organisms living off the food chain would be part of a symbiotic relationship involving nutrient cycling: where all other organisms are feeding off of the larger one, yet are providing some benefit to the overall host.

Climate change is something that affects our Earth many times in greater ways than we would like to acknowledge. Earth’s temperature has been steadily rising since the beginning of time, but we have seen a huge increase starting in the 20th century, when industrialization began to happen. The issues that arise from climate change are happening more often and at a greater scale. Recently we see the way that climate change affects biodiversity.

Anthropogenic activity has led to greatly increased emissions of greenhouses gases. Increased temperatures, acidification and stratification are all affected by increased carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. These symptoms of climate change have direct and indirect effects on to marine ecosystems, all of which start at the major primary producers of the oceans: phytoplankton.

Coral reefs were among the first ecosystems recognized as being vulnerable to the increasing ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is linked to the carbon dioxide that is released to the atmosphere and the reaction with seawater. The reaction of carbon dioxide with water forms weak carbonic acid (H2C03) that leads to increased acid levels in the ocean. This process uses the chemicals that coral reefs need to build their calcium skeleton thus interfering with their ability to grow normally. For instance, in the 1997-1998 El Nino-Southern Oscillation, 16% of all the tropical coral reefs died due to acidification.

Ocean Acidification is defined as “a reduction in the pH of the ocean over a period of time. A pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 and measures acidity. Marine life starts to die at around 4. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide naturally. When humans burn fossil fuel or deforestation occurs, oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide. Excess carbon dioxide creates a chemical reaction that causes the pH level of the ocean to drop. Aquatic plants may be able to help. The aquatic plants photosynthesize under water, which means they will absorb excess carbon dioxide and give oxygen.

Ocean acidification is sometimes called “climate change’s equally evil twin.” It 's a significant and harmful consequence of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that we don 't see or feel because its effects are happening underwater. At least one-quarter of the carbon dioxide released by burning coal, oil and gas doesn 't stay in the air, but instead dissolves into the ocean. Since the beginning of the industrial era, the ocean has absorbed some 525 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, presently around 22 million tons per day.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we exhale in our daily lives. Plants use carbon dioxide to create oxygen that all mammals use. However, carbon dioxide can also change the chemistry of the ocean, this is often referred to as ocean acidification. The excess carbon dissolves into oxygen in the water, producing a chemical called carbonic acid. This acid causes the ocean to become more acidic. In the eighteenth century, the pH was 8.07 which was slightly basic. Currently, the pH is around 8.01 this is about a twenty-five percent increase in acidity. (National geographic) While this slight change may not seem outrageous, it is causing multiple marine life struggles. The acid melts the shells of pteropods causing a low supply of food that would support larger fish.

The phenomena of global warming are the main factors that lead to the world climate change. The phenomena give a bad impact on the environmental quality that includes uncertainly of world temperature and a rising sea level (Maslin, 2004). According the Smith (2005) the other bad impact on global warming is, increased a greenhouse gaseous emissions, higher atmospheric temperatures, intense precipitation, and increased indoor discomfort.