The Effects Of Climate Change On The Planet - 1567 Words

The effects of climate change have become more apparent than ever within the last 100 years. Increasing climates have been proven; with the warmest temperatures in 30 years being recorded (Houghton, 1994). Suggested cause of this increase is population change, the ever increasing demand for natural resources to sustain economic growth has resulted in exploitation of ecological systems at a rate never recorded before. These huge changes to the planet will have a knock on effect to individual and global ecosystems resulting in varying levels of positive feedback. Throughout this essay I will be discussing on various ways climate change effects the ecology of the planet. The planet shows fluctuations of temperature from millions of years ago.†¦show more content†¦Evidence such as the rising of sea level by 17cm in the last century or the 150-250km3 loss of Greenland ice per year between 2002-2006 (NASA, 2014) proves that climate change is happening to us currently and the effects are immediate. The Carbon Cycle consists of the vital components for all animal and plant lives. It is primarily a reflection on primary and secondary production (Krebs, 2009). As seen in Figure 2, carbon levels have not been constant throughout history. Figure 3 represents the basic components of the Carbon cycle. The diagram shows that the oceans are the largest sink of carbon, and is at a constant equilibrium of atmospheric CO2 and aqueous CO2. The increase in atmospheric CO2 levels causes ocean acidification by decreasing the pH of the oceans. PH values are said to have dropped by 0.1pH units since pre industrial levels and are expected to drop a further 0.3 units by the end of the 20th century (Scott C Doney, 2007). This chemical change will have knock on affects in many marine ecosystems, which will be discussed later. However, there are positive results of the rapid increase of CO2 in relation to plants a; CO2 enrichment will no longer be a limiting factor of photosynthesis. Evidence of this is results from 3,586 separate