Climate Change and Marine Ecosystems

Oceans

• Cover over 70 % of Earth
• Supports everything from phytoplankton to whales
• Over 1 billion people’s main source of animal protein

Ecosystem: Natural unity consisting of all plants, animals and microorganisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment

Biodiversity

• Various lifeforms within ecosystem
• Sustains life
• Recycles air, soil, water, and matter

Coral Reef Basics

• Made of small animals called Corals
• Secrete hard calcium carbonate skeleton
• Can grow up to 10 centimeters a year

Who cares about reefs?

• Most diverse marine life populates
• Most diverse ecosystem PERIOD!!!
• Can take hundreds or thousands of years to build
• Could be source of new medicines
• Natural shoreline buffer
• Pretty to look at

Coarl Reef Changes

• 1⁄2 degree Temp change causes “bleaching”
• Symbiotic relationship with zoonantheallae (algae that live in the coral's soft tissues)
• Affected by temp change (algae die, then coral die soon afterward)
• Loss of Coral= Loss of ecosystem
• All other organisms that lived in area must leave or die
• Could be rare in 10-20 years

Phytoplankton

• Main food source for fish and animals in polar regions
• Breed on edge of glaciers
• Extreme sensitivity to temperature
• Populations could drastically decrease meaning loss of ecosystem

SO...

• Loss of ocean ecosystems=loss of biodiversity
• Loss of biodiversity=
• Starvation
• No further recycling of materials in ecosystem…
• Other bad stuff we don’t know about yet
• BASICALLY EVENTUAL END OF ALL LIFE AS WE KNOW IT!