Climate change will affect almost every corner of ocean, study says

Sunday October 20, 2013

Jessica Lim
Mr. Mathieu
Period 2

Author: Tony Barboza 
Published: October 15, 2013
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ocean-climate-change-effects-century-20131015,0,6711896.story

Summary:
The green house effect has caused ocean waters to warm up and become more acidic. It is said that by the end of the century, "the entire world's ocean surface" would have gone through big changes in biodiversity and in each and every ocean species' niche. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that by 2100 every part of the oceans on the whole earth would have been affected by climate change. As the seawater becomes warmer and the pH becomes lower, the size and growth of the ocean species will shrink and many ecosystems will be affected as well, therefore pushing the sea creatures to move further into deeper waters to the poles. Not only will the changes affect the sea creatures but it will also affect "between 470 million and 870 million poor people" because they all live on the contents underneath the ocean's surface, and if there is a sudden change they have nothing to depend on anymore. 

Connection:
This article specifically connects to our unit about ecosystems, more about the green house effect and the carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere allows sunlight to pass through to the Earth, but it also keeps some of the heat that is radiated from the surface of the Earth. As our activities release more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere there is more heat that is being trapped which is causing the earth's climate to rise, and it is causing ocean waters to warm up as well which is causing many changes in the way of life for the sea creatures. As said in the article if the ocean waters keep heating up then not only will the sea creatures in the water be affected, but also the people that live on the contents in the waters.