Marine Life in Danger – The Reality Is Worse Every Day

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Here is the sad truth: if the carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, there are several marine species that won’t be able to survive the changes. Although there are measures taken to save them, it looks like they won’t be efficient and adequate enough. If we want these species to survive, there will be need for more unconventional steps.

Marine Life in Danger

The truth

According to the latest studies, the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere is constantly increasing and this has a chemical and thermal impact on the ecosystems of the oceans. The result is that the acidity of the water increases as well as its temperature. In the near future the temperature will increase by 2 degrees and the acidity of the water will increase by 60% compared to the levels measured before industrialization started.

What do the specialists have to say?

The specialists believe that the measures taken until this point will turn out to be ineffective and inefficient. This is the moment to consider more serious and more drastic measures. In the moment when carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, a part of it is taken up by the waters in a way that increases their acidity levels.

As a result of this acidification there will be a lot of marine species that will become endangered, such as shellfish and corals. The research done until this point shows that the changes could lead to the decay of the exoskeletal components and it can threaten the survival of several species while it can reduce the activity of these species. It is possible that the coral reefs won’t survive the changes.

Current measures

There are three main measures taken at the moment to protect the marine life. First of all people are supposed to reduce or stabilize the CO2 levels of the atmosphere. The second one is to increase the monitoring of the chemical, physical and biological changes of the ocean to be able to understand it and to make predictions.

The third measure is to maintain the resilience of the ecosystem. This can be achieved by reducing the environmental threats that have nothing to do with CO2. This doesn’t mean that the specialists don’t agree with these policies. They are only saying that these alone will not be able to make the situation better. The specialists believe that these measures might help on the long run, but we don’t have that much time.

photo credit: (www.sciencedaily.com)

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