Running head: OCEAN CONSERVATION
OCEAN CONSERVATION 5
OCEAN CONSERVATION
Kamran Akhtar
HSCI 3533
Dr Pandora
Feb 16, 2019
“If all life on land were to vanish tomorrow, creatures in the ocean would flourish. But if the opposite happened and the ocean’s life perished, then the creatures on land would die too”. (Mitchell, 2009) This quote brings out the fact that most of the individuals are unaware of the crucial significance that the oceans possess regarding human sustainability. This is an issue that is not restricted to marine ecologists and conservational activists, but all the general global population. Most individuals incline to perceive that the sea and oceans are present to serve and generate food and transport routes for voyages. They perceive that the massive resources given by the planet will always be available as well as sufficiently buoyant to recompense human activities affecting the planet. It is crucial that individuals comprehend the functionality of the marine so that they can understand the impact and damages of their activities as well as the repercussions of ghoulish oceans. (Gray, 1997) Marine and oceans occupy over 70% of the earth and therefore the most massive ecosystem and thus is liable for regulation temperature, climate and also fundamental biochemical relations with the atmosphere. Phytoplankton, which are photosynthetic entities that reside on the surface of the water, account for over half of the oxygen gas being produced in the atmosphere although little appreciation if given to them regarding their involvement. Most individuals assume that trees and plants on the land produce much of the oxygen, which is not the case, the phytoplankton experience a lot of threats such as acidification of the ocean, which can reduce the oxygen content by almost 50%.
Additionally, oceans also contribute a lot in eliminating carbon dioxide in the air, which when intruded may result to acidification of the ocean. The oceans are in a continuous balance dissolving carbon dioxide into the water from the atmosphere, a process that eliminates a third of the total carbon dioxide form the air yearly. With increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the environment, there is also an increase in CO2 concentration in the oceans. This additional CO2 makes the water to be acidic and thus resulting to a degrading impact that affects the entire ocean environment, eventually resulting to death of most of the ocean creatures. Individuals need to know that the oceans contain almost all of the earth’s water content as well as 16% of the proteins in the world. Phytoplankton are thus the source of all ocean food chains and food web and thus if they are affected thy result to decrease in fish populations, which double with overfishing will result to global food shortages. This is because humans depend on a lot of products from the marine and the environment in general
There are a number of solutions and recommendations that can help to augment ...
