Climate change has been affecting ocean ecosystems and marine life in many different ways that people don’t realize. In this article, we will explore some examples of how climate change affects these.
First off, the ocean is warming by a lot. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) trap the heat in the earth. The more GHGs in the atmosphere, the warmer the earth is. Warmer earth causes warmer sea surface temperatures, which causes the water to be hotter than it should be. This makes it hard for marine life to survive since they aren’t used to that heat.
Next, climate change is also causing ocean acidification, which is when the water in the ocean becomes more acidic. This is bad because it causes marine species that rely on carbonate-based shells and skeletons (such as oysters, clams, lobsters, shrimp, coral reefs, and some seaweed plants) to not have the minerals they need in order to form their shells or skeletons.
Another thing it is causing is rising sea levels, which are mainly due to the sea water expanding as it warms and the glaciers and ice sheets melting, which is primarily bad for marine species due to where they live. Some marine species like crabs live on the beach. When sea level rises, they won’t be able to stay there and will no longer have a home. Some other marine species might just need to move homes, but it would suck if I had to move far away because of something a different species did to my home.
Another thing it can cause is droughts. Climate change causes warmer temperatures, which cause stronger evaporation, which leads to more water being evaporated. When more water is evaporated, marine species have less area to live. Imagine having a house with a couple people and then eventually have to stay in a room for a very long time and you can’t ever leave to get food. This is exactly what some of them are going through during droughts.
Another thing it can cause is floods. For some marine life, this is perfectly fine. But for others, it is just like if you were in a flood. You could kind of move around, but not have much control of yourself. It is worse for marine species because they aren’t able to do things like climb up or hold on to things. They are just stuck until the flood ends. Regardless of what happens, this could potentially harm their metabolism, mainly due to lack of oxygen, stress and cooler temperatures, which decreases lifespan.
As you can see, climate change is not good at all for marine life. It makes the water warmer than they can handle, prevents certain species from growing properly, make some need to migrate somewhere else, traps them in a small area, and reduces lifespan. This could be prevented if people did not make climate change as bad as it is.
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