Oceanic hotspots
Samuel Fahnrich
I have discussed topics relating global warming to the ocean before, but this time I want to inform you about the livelihood of corals.
It is no secrete that millions of people rely on seafood as a means of living for food and economy. As you learn in Biology, the ocean is a network of food chains and webs involving predators and their prey. Links in these systems build upon a starting organism which produces its own energy through photosynthesis. The light from the sun enables these organisms to harness their own energy and sustain life. They are then eaten by other organisms, who are then eaten by another, etc. This is the process of a food chain, with a food web incorporating different organisms who consume the same species of prey.
Other than performing a fine review of Biology 101, my summary refreshed the principle of organism dependency. This relates to global warming in a number of ways, but for this I want to focus on coral reefs and their one-celled friends. Corals are the world's largest known organisms which expand far across the ocean floor. Because of this factor, corals are not only important for coastal regions, but all oceanic relations. The problem lies within overexposure to sunlight, and the process of "bleaching" that occurs when the sun literally kills the corals means of survival. The dependency is based on the one-celled organisms of algae (zooxanthellae) providing corals with nutrients to survive. As the ocean temperature becomes warmer the algae dies, eventually killing all of the algae if temperatures allow. Without the algae the coral soon starve to death impacting all oceanic forms of life due to the breaks and gaps of food chains and webs.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080324091101.htm
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