Climate Change Affecting Oceans

Climate change comes with the effects of rising water levels, melting ice, expanding oceans, and much more. They may not seem like huge problems, but if we piece everything together, we see that from the International Business Times, “Sea water levels have risen by almost 7.8 inches as ice has melted and oceans have expanded from that warming since 1870....” These alarming conditions, like the melted ice have even led to acidification in oceans and coral bleaching. As a result of those and other effects, 82 percent of the 94 ecological processes that were evaluated in the study appeared to be impacted by climate change. Clearly, we can conclude that these changes will not go away in a matter of time, and can be deadly and dangerous to the inhabitants of Earth. Climate change is the cause of the oceans being drastically affected. The magnitude of the problem of climate change has caused world leaders have come together to discuss ways to solve the problem, and scientists, biologists, and organizations are all doing their best to research, experiment, and raise awareness.
The ocean’s temperatures are rising like never before. In fact, they have absorbed the 20 times the amount of heat that the atmosphere has over the past 50 years.The rising ocean temperatures not only assists the overall warming trend in our planet, but also affects the currents and the sea level. The sea level is rising, due to the melting of ice, and other changes caused by climate change.
While the ocean temperatures are rising, polar animals are facing the consequences of climate change. Polar bears, the largest land carnivore on earth, are in extreme threat. These animals depend on the ice to thrive. They hunt for food on the ice, and use it as resting spots. They are now faced with the challenge getting food due to the fact that the ice caps are melting. According to the National Wildlife Safety, the average bear weight has dropped by 15 percent, meaning hunting for food has become a new hardship to them. The remaining ice is now more scattered, and for polar bears to reach them they have to swim a much longer distance. The National Wildlife Safety says “A female polar bear reportedly swam for nine days nonstop-across the Beaufort Sea before reaching an ice floe, costing her 22 percent of her weight and her cub.” Because of melting ice, these polar bears lose a lot of strength and even family to get to ice. Sadly, the U.S. Geological Survey projects that two thirds of polar bears will disappear by 2050. Not only are polar bears being affected, but so are other animals like the arctic fox, beluga whale, and the narwhal. For arctic foxes, climate change has lead to a decrease in their main source of food. For the beluga whales and narwhals, other predators like orcas and polar bears are expanding their hunting territories to ice-free waters, since the ice is melting.
It was many years ago when you were able to look at the Great Barrier Reef, and see an ecosystem with a plentiful plant diversity-especially and beautiful populations of coral. You would also see radiant and vivid fishes and aquatic animals, but also vibrant colors from the healthy coral in the reef. However, if you look at it today, no longer will you see all that beauty; instead, you would see a vast ocean full of dead-white and ghost pale-coral, and a significant decrease in the abundance of organisms. Corals reefs are ecosystems referred as “Tropical Rainforests of the Ocean” for their high productivity and biodiversity. For the past couple of years, coral ecosystems have been degrading due to the effects of the warming waters. The corals in the ecosystems have been bleached, giving them their dead, white-looking color. Corals are unable to withstand the higher temperatures of the oceans. The coral in the ecosystems respond by coral bleaching. This is when they react to the higher temperature of the ocean by expelling their zooxanthellae, living organisms in their tissues, causing them to turn white. The loss of zooxanthellae allows them to be more vulnerable to disease. They zooxanthellae is also their main food source, so without it, they will have little amount of food. The bleaching for the coral will also negatively affect the other parts of the marine environment. This is because corals support 25% of marine species. Equally important, the people who rely on these marine species for a living and a job are at stake. People like fishermen are already experiencing affects; their amount of catches are getting less because the amount of fishes in the oceans have decreased.
The Earth has maintained a stable level of acidity in oceans until we started experiencing climate change. How did ocean acidification happen? The carbon dioxide that is released into the air, that causes climate change, is absorbed by seawater. It dissolves and forms carbonic acid. We have 25% increase in acidity right now, and it biologically impacts many ocean species. Many organisms at the bottom of the food web are affected negatively, because they cannot withstand these high levels of acidity, which in turn causes repercussions to the whole food web. Additionally, climate change has led to failures developing oysters in natural environments. Our food sources are in risk, and the jobs of people who rely in these aquatic environments due to the climate change affecting oceans.
The effects of climate change in the oceans will continue to be more drastic if we continue to ignore the present situation. What will continue to happen, we can’t be too sure, but what we can do is to take part to help the environment, so our future generations can continue to enjoy all that we have today.