Sidra Sarwer, Green Blogger

Climate change is having a bigger impact on animals and plants in the ocean than those on land according to new research. This could be because organisms that live on land better able to avoid the negative consequences of global warming than their ocean counterparts. Researchers have been examining the impact of temperature on biodiversity, or the variety of life on Earth. The studies life temperature regions, the places on Earth in between the sub – tropics and the polar circles where temperatures tend to be moderate, such as Europe and North America. Using a vast database at the University of st Andrews they examine ecosystems around the globe, looking at changes in the number of species and the total numbers of Individuals over time, then matched these against changes in air and ocean temperature.  

 Conor Waldock is a Co – author the paper, which he worked on while completing his PhD at the museum. He says we wanted to know whether we can see the influence of global warming on animal and plant life by comparing the changes in biodiversity in areas that have warmed  to those that haven’t  much working. Some places are experiencing much more sudden increases in temperature than others, so this was a bit like performing a giant natural experiment. Biodiversity changing all the time and can be difficult to track. Biodiversity refers to much more than just individual, animals and plants. It includes all living things and their  communities. The ocean, disasters, forest and ice caps that live in. It’s important that nature is diverse, because diversity makes ecosystems more resilient to change. Species and ecosystems can be fragile, so even small change in temperature come have larger conservation. Just a tiny increase can tip some animals and plants into extinction. 

 That’s why studies like this one are so crucial. It is not just important to preserve nature for its own sake. Humanity’s future relies on biodiversity as well for instance, hundreds of million of people rely on seafood as their main source of protein. continued warming and more acidic waters will substantially  alter marine food chains. Biodiversity is changing more quickly in the ocean. In temperature areas, the study found that the numbers of organisms decrease as the water gets warmer. However, the number of different species found in these  increase, as the temperature does. At first that increase seems surprising, but as the study focused only on temperate ecosystems, this is probably caused by an influx of warm – water animals migrating to new areas that are now becoming more suitable. The study did not see the same consistent changes on land, despite a targets increase in temperature. That’s not to say that temperature change is not affecting biodiversity on land. It may be that animals and plants on land have wider tolerance and more strategies to survive warming temperatures compared to ocean organisms. Conor explain’s we discovered that changes to ocean life on land.  

Suggesting marine ecosystems may be highly sensitive to warming. This appears surprising because the ocean only warmed half as much as the land. In our study, the ocean but we expect that species on land have more strategies to avoid the impacts of increase temperature, for example to higher altitudes, or persisting in pockets of cooler climates lead researcher Launa Antao, from Research center for ecological change at the Universities of Helsinki adds, we know that biodiversity change is a complex phenomenon as temperature is major factor affecting species distributing and survival. Our study provides a clear 

picture of the change in number of species and individual against changes in temperature, when we, see mostly gains in the coinciding with warming in these temperate location. But we also see nuance in the responses, and this is very valuable as it show that biodiversity change is not same everywhere. Oxygen will is declining in the ocean and human are the major cause. This occurs when more oxygen is consumed than replenished where warming’s and nutrient increase cause high lowers of microbial consumption of oxygen. 

 Deoxygenation can be worse by dense aquaculture, leading to reduced growth, behavioral changes increased disease particularly for finfish and crustaceans. Deoxygenation is predicted to become exacerbated in coming years, but steps can be take to combat this threat including reducing green – house gas emission as well as black carbon and nutrient discharges. The Kyoto protocol is an international commitment to set internationally binding targets for green house gas emission reduction. This agreement was ratified in 1997 and entered into force in 2015.

About the Author : Sidra Sarwer, student of environment at GCWUS is an enthusiastic and motivated blogger Jr. , who is passionate to pen down her thoughts on environment, climate and sustainable development.