Ocean Acidification And Climate Change

Introduction As of now the Earths ocean is home to over 230,000 species of marine plants and animals. Today the oceans are at risk because of human activities. The main problem is climate change which leads to other problems within such as ocean acidification and pollution; these effects can all have an ever lasting impact on what's in the ocean and what's out.

Paragraph 1: Climate Change (ocean acidification, CO2 ,etc.) One of the main dangers of the oceans today is climate change and from this comes a whole range of other issues which can further impact the Earth’s oceans. One issue is ocean acidification which is the decrease of the oceans power of hydrogen level (pH) caused by carbon dioxide absorbing with the seawater.
In the past, few decades humans have caused the ocean to absorb approximately 30% of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which leads to the oceans pH level to drop slowly (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[IPCC],2014). As time goes on the ocean, will become more vulnerable to what humans are doing to it and the percentage of CO2 absorbed by the ocean will gradually increase which can have ever lasting impacts on what is in and around the ocean. Additionally, with ocean acidification there will be major setbacks to marine ecosystems that provide assistance to humanity (Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity[CBD],2014). For example, popular tourist attractions such as The Great Barrier Reef provide income from the people that visit, at the moment the reef is being affected by coral bleaching which is caused by overfishing and climate change, therefore this will persuade people not to visit anymore as it is not worthwhile. However, The United Nations General Assembly(as cited in CBD,2014) discuss that there are initiatives that are being addressed by states about how ocean acidification is impacting on coastal and marine ecosystems; and to also work together to stop major communities from being effected by slowing down or restricting the effects of ocean acidification.

Paragraph 2: Effect on Sea life There are numerous animals in the sea that are affected by the effects of climate change and it is expected that in the next few years; some animals could face extinction One effect is that these problems will impact the food chain drastically, the two most important plant and animal species on the planet is plankton which forms the structure of the food chain and is a direct source of food for most if not all marine life on Earth; and the other is phytoplankton which is the main producer of oxygen for every living specie on the planet (Fabry et al, as cited in MFE,2015). If all plankton disappeared, most, if not all of the animals in the food chain would also disappear. Similarly, Neurus Program (2015) discuss that the oceans and marine ecosystems are getting pushed to the limits by the impact of humans; about 40% of the worlds oceans are heavily effected by human activities. It is clear that humans are not slowing down which will furthermore increase the effects that it is having on the oceans. Additionally, The MFE(2015) talk about how the marine environment is also affected by activities on land such as sediment and excess nutrients from plantations that flow into canals and out into the ocean, this can all lead to the degrading of the oceans. Alternatively, there are some species that actually benefit from the effects of ocean acidification because they are able to withstand extreme conditions but there are also some species that cannot live in extreme environments meaning that they may face extinction; it is also shown that ocean acidification is changing across the Arctic Ocean (The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, as cited in CBD,2014).
The Arctic ocean is home to thousands of different fish and plant species, a slight change in ocean acidification levels can even change that thousands to hundreds and there has already been evidence that some species have been wiped out by this increase in acidification
level. However, in New Zealand, the government has constructed more than 44 marine reserves around the coast of New Zealand to protect areas of the environment from overfishing and other disturbances (CBD, MFE,2015).
Having marine reserves is important to ensure that sea life is preserved in a thriving state; marine reserves also help humans study marine plants and animals to show the impact of animals and plants that are protected and the ones that are not. Paragraph 3: Effect on humans Not only marine life is affected by these problems but also humans are affected. One problem that effects humans is” When considering how ocean acidification will affect human society the response of tropical coral systems is understandably of great concern – since over 400 million people worldwide live within 100km of coral reefs, with very many reliant on them for their livelihoods and food security"(Teh, Teh & Sumaila as cited in CBD,2014). Additionally, CBD(2014) discuss that not only are there 400 million people that live by the ocean but there are over 2billion people situated around the globe that rely on seafood and products from the sea for them to continue life; and this number will continue to grow as the years go on. This just shows that the impact this will have on future generations will be extensive as there is a bigger demand. Therefore, there needs to be a solution that would cater to all communities affected by climate
change Additionally, due to climate change there have been major threats to human health such as contamination of water and food supplies, an occurrence of extreme weather events and diseases spreading around due to marine biotoxins (Costello et al, as cited in IPCC,2014). Meanwhile, there is “An initiative called the Global Partnership for oceans set out to establish a global framework with which to share experience, resources, and expertise, as well as to engage governments, industry civil and public sector interest in both understanding and finding solutions to key issues such as overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction” (Hoegh Guldberg et al, as cited in IPCC,2014). This initiative will gather groups from around the world to discuss ideas and possible solutions which will be have a positive impact on communities around the world. Conclusion As shown above, there are many problems facing the oceans today and all these problems will have ever lasting impacts not only on sea animals but also on humans. There are numerous solutions that can be used to combat ocean acidification and pollution but the key to doing this is time which is important because that the sooner a solution is executed the faster the problem can be eliminated.