Marine Life At Risk If Oceans’ Temperatures Increase

A paper, recently published in the journal Science, states that man-made climate change is not only affecting all life on land but also can severely disrupt the delicate balance of marine life.

It is becoming more and more obvious that even if the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference accomplishes all of its goals, global warming will still negatively and irreversibly alter the environment.

Several studies and papers supported by scientific communities and environmentalist groups demand that the objectives of the Paris Conference reflect the harsh reality and change accordingly. These groups want more effective climate change prevention measures to be adopted along with stricter pollution control guarantees from all U.N  member states.

The recent paper on marine life endangerment published by the Ocean 2015 innitiative and published in the journal Science, warns that unless immediate action is taken to reduce CO2 emissions the oceans ecosystems will change, driving species to extension and forcing others to relocate.

The paper states that due to the oceans increasing temperatures, oxygen levels in the water might become inadequate and unable to support many of the species that currently inhabit it.

Carbon dioxide levels are also increasing in the oceans and are affecting several sensitive marine species forcing them to relocate in order to survive while others are in danger of completely disappearing.

Carbon dioxide can increase the acidity of local environments and render them uninhabitable. If certain species migrate and invade other local marine life communities they can set off a chain reaction consisting of invasive species disturbing local food chain balances and thus generating other invasive species.

The paper also warns that the planet’s waters are going to see changes in temperature and thus in their ecosystem even if we prevent further CO2 emissions , meaning that at this point all we can do is minimize the damage without any way of completely preventing it.

Some scientists believe that marine life is already being affected by global warming, with several species having their biology and community dynamic changed by the already risen temperatures.

According to different sources global warming directly caused by CO2 emissions has raised the Earth’s temperature by 1 degree Celsius already  and has generated an ocean temperature increase of 0.1 degrees Celsius.

While this might seem a small increase, any rise in ocean temperature affects the oceanic currents which cool and heat the planet meaning that every small change could lead to further complications.

Image Source: aviso.altimetry.fr