This climate change related topic is big enough to have a seperate thread.
For a scientific report on the state of the oceans, look at the following link:
http://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-46-en.pdf
Human CO2 emissions globally are well quantified. Over half of these emissions are absorbed into the ocean (CO2 + water = carbonic acid) changing its chemistry making it more acidic. Acidity has increased over 40% in the last several decades, and has severe consequences for the entire ocean food chain.
Oceans are the lungs of the planet (more important than rain forests).
Take 2 breaths, the O2 (oxygen) in the second breath was produced by plankton in the surface waters of the ocean. Plankton are in surface layers since they need sunlight to photosynthesize. However they also need nutrients to do this; these nutrients are derived from water that is deep in the ocean and mixes with the surface water.
Dead zones in the ocean (dissolved oxygen < 2 mg/liter) are lacking sufficient oxygen for fish/shellfish/and smaller creatures to survive. Only things like jellyfish which require less oxygen to live (since they have a huge surface area) can survive in these zones. The largest dead zone is basically the Baltic Sea, next largest is in the Gulf of Mexico each year (17,000 square km a few years ago) and is caused by fertilizer runoff from farmers fields entering the ocean via the Mississippi River. Fertilizer causes plankton explosion, plankton dies, sinks to bottem, bacteria decompose it aerobically and use up all the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Number of dead zones doubles each decade, and is now over 410.
Needless to say, an OCEANGATE will discount all the work of oceanographers soon....
For a scientific report on the state of the oceans, look at the following link:
http://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-46-en.pdf
Human CO2 emissions globally are well quantified. Over half of these emissions are absorbed into the ocean (CO2 + water = carbonic acid) changing its chemistry making it more acidic. Acidity has increased over 40% in the last several decades, and has severe consequences for the entire ocean food chain.
Oceans are the lungs of the planet (more important than rain forests).
Take 2 breaths, the O2 (oxygen) in the second breath was produced by plankton in the surface waters of the ocean. Plankton are in surface layers since they need sunlight to photosynthesize. However they also need nutrients to do this; these nutrients are derived from water that is deep in the ocean and mixes with the surface water.
Dead zones in the ocean (dissolved oxygen < 2 mg/liter) are lacking sufficient oxygen for fish/shellfish/and smaller creatures to survive. Only things like jellyfish which require less oxygen to live (since they have a huge surface area) can survive in these zones. The largest dead zone is basically the Baltic Sea, next largest is in the Gulf of Mexico each year (17,000 square km a few years ago) and is caused by fertilizer runoff from farmers fields entering the ocean via the Mississippi River. Fertilizer causes plankton explosion, plankton dies, sinks to bottem, bacteria decompose it aerobically and use up all the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Number of dead zones doubles each decade, and is now over 410.
Needless to say, an OCEANGATE will discount all the work of oceanographers soon....
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