The Response of Organisms Towards Climate Change Essay

The sandy shores of beaches can be considered as a very harsh environment to live in (Ted Klenk, 1999). Survival in such a habitat requires an organism to withstand strong wave and current action, tidal rise and fall, unstable substrate, heavy predation and wide variations in salinity and temperature (The Otter Island Project). Any organism found in this type of harsh environment is specialized and highly adapted (The Otter Island Project).

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).

A decline in loggerhead populations due to temperature increases will have a large ecological effect as loggerhead turtles play important ecological roles such as maintaining food webs, cycling nutrients, and modifying habitat (Wilson et al. 2010 and Bjorndal 2003). Loggerhead turtles physically support many marine species. Loggerheads support the largest and most diverse amounts of epibionts of any marine turtle species. There are many epibionic species that are endemic to sea turtles and sea turtles maintain biodiversity in epibiont communities. A period of five to ten years may have minimal impacts on epibiont communities; however, a fifty year period may see enough loggerhead population declines that epibiont species are at risk

“Penguin responses to climate change in the Southern Ocean” by Jaume Forcada and Philip N. Trathan (2009) was a study conducted to analyze and predict the migrating patterns of different species of penguins due to changes in climate. (p. 1618) Also, Forcada and Trathan investigate whether or not certain species of penguins possess phenotypic plasticity (the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment) (p. 1618).

In the Americas Pavilion of the Toronto Zoo, two species were identified as having different reactions to the same change to the environment. The Giant Pacific Octopus and the North American River Otter are affected differently by the inconsistent climate patterns and the overall warming of the climate.

Habitat can be considered as the optimal location where any one species can live, reproduce, and grow in an ecological time scale (Kellner et al. 1992). As the climatic conditions of the world are changing at a rapid pace, it is important to understand how species will adapt with the weather and learn to adjust their way of living. Understanding how a species survives in different climatic regions is very important for the future management of the species population and habitat. With this knowledge an individual could more efficiently manage their habitat to make it more suitable for the species to live under the given climatic conditions.

Natural selection is arduous but it is also amazing to see how some aquatic organism evolved over time with pollution and specifically global warming. Since global warming will increase heat in aquatic habitat, thermal behavior will evolve as well (Bolnick 2003, et al). Ectothermal species are very fascinating due to their capability to live in a wide variety of climate change on earth. Knowing about their ability would explain their tolerance even though we are going through a big climate change every day (Sollid 2006). As a conformer Carassius auratus would not mind being within a range of different environment without too much suffocation as long as it’s not over their limit. Being responsive to climate change would have an

There are many patterns that can be observed throughout our environment. In this experiment, the temperatures of organisms in a biophysical environment were analyzed to see if a pattern could be recognized that was related to the behavior of an ectotherm. An ectotherm is an organism that relies on the environment to regulate its body temperature. Organisms such as Pseudemys (turtles) and Lacertilia (lizards) are examples or ectotherms. After arriving at Maxcy Gregg Park and analyzing the temperatures of four microhabitats within two habitats with infrared thermometers, the temperatures were compared between the microhabitats. Then, one habitat was chosen to analyze the temperatures between

These increasing ocean temperatures, which result in global warming, are mostly due to the amount of CO2 released in the air, therefore threatening the existence of the coral reef systems (Cole, Pratchett and Jones). The reduction of the coral reef ecosystems are attributed to the climate induced bleaching from the past decade. The loss of coral reef environments has direct affects to the habitat of an organism within the reefs (Cole, Pratchett and Jones), leading to a decrease in biodiversity (Coker, Pratchett and Munday).

The next innocent animal forced to cope with global warming is the whale. With the ocean waters warming more and more, the patches of zooplankton that female whales need to “bulk up” for a full pregnancy and being able to produce milk for her young. When the amount of zooplankton is too low, the right whale,

Ectotherms utilize behavioral adaptations to their environment in order to allow heat exchange to take place in a manner better suited for thermoregulation. Serving as model ectotherms, the sugar-covered marshmallows in the shape of the bird, peeps, were subject to two different microhabitats including a sandy and plastic microhabitat to see the rate of temperature over time and the temperature at which a stable internal temperature was reached. It was hypothesized that the peeps would experience more thermal stress and greater/faster thermal rise on the plastic than in the opposing microhabitat: the wet sand, when thermoregulating over time. An experiment at Maxcy Greg park was set up where five peeps were placed into each microhabitat while

The Supra-littoral zone is one of the harshest terrains for organisms to exist in. The organisms that live in this region are facing problems like gas exchange, desiccation, temperature changes and feeding. It is only covered during storms and extremely high tides and is moistened by the spray of the breaking waves. Organisms are exposed to the drying heat of the sun in the summer and to extreme low temperatures in the winter. Because of these severe conditions, only a few resistant organisms live here. The dominate organisms that reside within this zone are Blue grey Periwinkles. Using Transect lines for over 30m, we evaluated the effects of several factors on this zone, including (1) predation, (2) herbivory, (3) plant—plant competition, (4) plant—animal competition, and (5) physical disturbance from high—energy waves. The interaction having the greatest effect on the structure of this zone was desiccation and high temperatures. However the Blue grey Periwinkle has been specially adapted to the harsh conditions of the dry upper littoral zone. They are able to trap water inside their shell to prevent moisture escaping, and cling to the rock face while the tide is out. As we can see from the abiotic data the temperature at the Supra littoral zone is also very high reaching 25 degrees compared to the other zones reaching only 20 degrees. Furthermore the special adaptations of the Blue Grey Periwinkle allow it to be the most dominant

"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words” (Anna Sewell). There is undeniable evidence that animals are being affected by climate change. Even though the effects are difficult to measure, there are many different ways animals are being affected. With the loss of predator and prey species it affects the life cycles in the food chain. The earth’s climate change causes habitats such as snow, ice, or forest areas to alter, resulting in loss of habitat and food accessibility as well as causing extinction.

Climate is inherently variable. Climate changes from place to place and it varies with time. The world now faces one of the complex and important issue it has ever had to deal with: climate change. Climate change today is one of the biggest concerns of human beings on the planet and the effects of climate change are undeniable and it may cause environmental, social, and economic threats to the planet. We already know and easily can highlight several signs of climate change. They are: rising global sea level, widespread melting of snow and ice, rapidly changing ocean and global temperatures, and other signs. So, what are the causes of climate change? Is it natural or do human beings cause it? Well, in both cases we would be right. The climate change can be affected by natural factors, such as solar output, volcanic eruptions, and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Also, climate change can be affected by human activities such as, deforestation, burning fossil fuels, causing ozone hole, and building mass destructive weapons and using them on earth that causes a huge radioactivity on earth. Currently, the threat of global climate change does not threaten some nations to the extent of others. Compare the United States with the rest of African countries. We live in prosperity and in much easier time than the rest African countries. Most African countries cannot grow anything on their lands because of climate change. At the end, climate change might affect everyone on

Climate change could be described as any process that causes adjustment to climate system be it a volcanic eruption to a change in the solar activity. Today, however, the phrase is most often used as climate change caused by humans. Climate change is also used commonly with another phrase – "global warming" – reflecting scientific observations of strong warming trends over the past century or so. Indicators like rising sea levels, retreating snow cover and glaciers, longer growing seasons and shifting wildlife has alarmed scientific community unanimously agreeing that the earth has warmed in the last century. Experts however are of the opinion that climate change is a more accurate phrase than global warming as the latter is just one component affecting the larger climate systems of the earth.