How Does El Nino Alter Ocean Life

Oceans cover approximately 75% of Earth 's surface and are vital to this planet and the people who inhabit it. Oceans provide food, natural resources, and recreation for nearly everyone in this world. Unfortunately Oceans have been receiving mass amount of pollutants including oil spills, toxic waste dumping, and industrial dumping. These pollutants will have negative impacts on the wildlife in the ocean, as we are seeing already with the Coral Reefs, and soon enough it will begin to affect our lives as well.

Climate change is affecting oceans tremendously. Threats faced by the ocean planet seem uncontrollable. In the face of overfishing, pollution, and climate change it may seem like a drop in the bucket. With the amount of light reaching onto the shore, plants should be reduced in order for the rising sea levels to fall. Oceans have also absorbed tons of carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere causing ocean acidification. Coral bleaching is caused by high water temperatures leading to coral death, and can turn into a negative impact on the entire coral ecosystem. We intend to provide options a single person can take in order to help the cause and make a difference. Our mission is to conserve the Earth’s living heritage, our global

Over the years, climate change has affected marine species because it has increased the ocean temperature, causing it to get warmer, which is causing a negative impact to most marine organisms like echinoderms and cnidarians (Quinn, 2016). In many cases, the optimum temperature of growth increased 1-6°C, which created harmful effects on stages of development (Quinn, 2016). In some cases such as the American lobster (Homarus americanus), warming of the ocean had caused smaller body sizes (Le Bris et al., 2016). Even though there is some research that showed that the warm temperature could also benefit the lobster’s population, most of their population has declined in the warmest and southernmost regions of the lobster’s range in places like southern New England and Long Island Sound (Quinn, 2016).

Wind powered surface currents and waves, along with moon and sun powered tides, greatly impact Earth’s coastlines. As warm or cold water ocean currents affect coastal climates, waves release energy, shifting sand and sediments, eroding and replenishing coastline shores; all while tides raise and lower sea level. Florida’s east coast, encompassed by barrier islands, is affected by subtropical ocean waters provided by the Gulf Stream, facilitating warm and humid climates, as well as hurricanes. As these warm ocean waters interact with Florida’s barrier islands, through wave action and tides, its coastline continuously transforms.

The earth’s oceans are overfished. Nearly 80 percent of commercial fisheries are overexploited and some experts believe that global fisheries will completely collapse by 2048 (Barkin page 1). While these are just facts that tell the worst-case scenario, they should be alarms that spark change in the way we fish. This paper, however, will specifically target overfishing in the Grand Banks in Newfoundland, Canada, and analyze its impact on Earth, its Environment and Humanity. Over fishing is simply when fishermen catch more fish than are being reproduced. Eventually the stock of fish in the environment will be completely depleted. That is exactly what happened off the shores of Newfoundland in 1992. With Cod fishing at an all time high, the Canadian government discovered that the Cod population was almost exhausted. New technology and poor decision-making led to the complete destruction of the cod population in the Grand Banks and this is a mistake that we should never repeat.

the oceans are also affected by the climate change because the climate change affects the sea animals that live on corals or any fish that feed off the

Overall El Niño is a world wide phenomenon which affects countries in different ways depending on were they are situated and whether they are a LEDC or MEDC.

This caused more snake bites as mice from the higher elevations came to lower elevations to find food and water while their prey (snakes) followed them. In New Mexico, however, the climate turned cooler and wetter. This caused an increase in the bubonic plague, because the weather conditions were ideal for fleas and rodents. “The mountain and pacific states had severe storms that caused $1.1 billion of damage and left 45 plus people dead” (Blue Planet, 2017, table 1). Because of the abnormal warm sea surface temperatures, there were multiple shark attacks off the Oregon coast. This caused the sharks to migrate towards the warm ocean waters. The California coast suffered from continuous violent rain, wind and high tides that eroded the shore. The erosion caused fishermen to notice different species along the coastline that did not belong in that particular area (Gannon, 1986). Also during the famous 1982-1983 El Niño, Hawaii was hit by Hurricane Iwa causing an abundance amount of damage (Blue Planet, 2017). “Perhaps one of the most striking effect of the 1982-1983 El Niño was recorded by David Salstein and Richard Rosten of Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They found that the angular momentum of the Earth shifted slightly as a result of changes in the normal pattern of the jet stream and trade winds. In late January, at El Niño’s peak, the

One clear factor are runoffs.Clearly this is one major issue that needs to addressed since we keep having to address this issue whenever we discuss our oceans. Dangerous chemicals are reaching our water impacting the ecosystem at each level. Sea Otters were once near-extinction by the early 20th century due human hunting. Since then we have put in place numerous acts to prevent this from occurring. Although these changes helped bring populations numer back up we are witnessing a weather rapid decline once more in their population due to the number of kale farms decreasing. The reason for kale’s decrease seems to be the warming of our ocean seas. Both these issues are recurring whenever we discuss our ocean's decline.

With the upcoming El Niño, Los Angeles is at harm from any effects, such as landslides, mudflows, and flooding. El Niño has severely affected the coastal areas of Los Angeles County three times during the years of 1977-1978, 1982-1983, and 1997-1998 (FEMA, 2011). Los Angeles County has several watersheds such as the Los Angeles River, Santa Monica Bay, and San Gabriel River (LADPW) that serve to reduce flooding, but it may not have the proper infrastructure to prevent commercial or residential areas from flooding. Los Angeles may not have levees that can protect its areas because they might be structurally inferior or are not approved by FEMA (City of Los Angeles, Engineering. 2015). There are many hilly areas in Los Angeles, and residential

Over the past couple of years, no other issue has received more attention in the marine community than ocean acidification. Marine biologists have been constantly working towards solving this issue and are hoping to see improvement’s very soon. Ocean acidification refers to the relentless growth in acidity of the Earth’s oceans. This on-going acidity has attributed to an important element; a constant rise of carbon dioxide levels in the Earth. The number one reason this issue is still happening is because of burning fossil fuels. In addition to burning fossil fuels, it has come to a point where it has enlarged a large amount of carbon dioxide by releasing it into the atmosphere. Chemists have taken this issue into attention that carbon enters the ocean and combines with seawater to fallout acid, which boosts the level of acidity. This process is known as ocean acidification.

For example, EI Nino threatens Peru's anchovy harvest, which could mean higher prices for food. The warm water of Ei Nino keeps the nutrient-rich cold water which procides anchovies with food down at the bottom of the ocean. Anchovies are the primary source of fish meal which is the main ingredient in animal

As carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, increased concentrations of it have led to an amplified greenhouse effect. More solar infrared radiation is re-emitted and absorbed by the Earth, causing surface temperatures to rise. Therefore, the density of the surface waters will decrease, which means there is a greater

The segment lasted for 26:39 minutes. El Nino is an event where warm water shifts to other parts of the world and produces enhanced rainfall conditions; they are fairly predictable. El Nino, along with La Nina, impacts the intensity and timing of rainy seasons. There are multiple hypotheses to describe these events, but more knowledge is needed for sure. Several studies suggest that El Ninos are affected by global warming, where they become more extreme and occur more often. Due to this current event, tropical climates have been substantially affected. The current one affects the fevers and sicknesses in such climates, reaching as far as East Africa. It has even been linked to Cholera disease in Bangladesh. Those cases are more likely during

     Now that we are aware that global warming is influencing our world’s oceans, we must look at the affects that it is having. I did not find any positive affects of global warming on the oceans. It is sad to say, but I was left with only the negative. One of the effects that warmer temperatures have on the oceans is that they disrupt the ocean circulation rate (Pearce, 1996). As I previously mentioned, oceans must maintain all of its characteristics properly. Warmer temperatures in the atmosphere affect circulation rates in the oceans. If circulation rates in the oceans are altered, then everything in the oceanic environment becomes changed. The oceanic currents become affected, as well.