Climate Change - Seas and Oceans

In anticipation to the upcoming Copenhagen Talks, I have decided to write a short series of blogs around climate change. In these blogs I will look at different environments, implications onto humans and other organisms and cause and effects of climate change.

In this blog I will focus on the seas and oceans, and how they will change the environments and consequences of these changes.

The rising levels of carbon dioxide into earth's atmosphere is having serious repercussions for marine life. This is caused by the sea/ocean absorbing the carbon dioxide producing carbonic acid, carbonate and bicarbonate. Also dissolving carbon dioxide into seas/oceans causes a rise in hydrogen ions, which all reduce the pH.

With the seas and oceans becoming more acidic it means that organisms like coral, plankton, molluscs and crustaceans cannot survive, which has a ripple effect on the rest of that food chain.

Under normal sea conditions calcite and aragonite are stable as the carbonate ions are at supersaturating concentrations, however, as the pH lowers these become unsaturated, the structures made of calcium carbonate are at risk of dissolution. This could be catastrophic for molluscs, crustaceans and corals.

So as you can see the risk of rising carbon dioxide through human activities can have disastrous consequences to marine organisms, which will have negative consequences for humans.

An Underwater Nursery

Off the coast of Fiji a group of biologist have setup an underwater nursery growing coral to rejuvenate the reefs.

BBC-South Pacific Episode 6

The project has had phenomenal results, turning one coral finger into fifty or more in just two years. The 'coral gardeners' tend the reef looking for corals that are too clustered together and uproot as to prevent them from dying, then move the coral to a new place or break it down into fingers and grow new coral heads from scratch.

Coral Reefs throughout the world are severely damaged due to being crushed by a vessel's hull, pollution, coral mining, overfishing, climate change or fishing with dynamite. The efforts of the biologist are making a huge difference, however it maybe the education taught to the local fishermen that proves far greater significants to the longevity of the coral reefs.