{"id":8378,"date":"2020-02-24T16:52:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T21:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=8378"},"modified":"2020-06-19T16:01:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T20:01:24","slug":"practical-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/practical-implications\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When\ntrying to understand the big-picture effects of climate change, no subject is\nmore important than the oceans and their role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water,\nas endowed Associate Professor of Marine Science Jason Adolf points out, has\nthe ability to absorb heat without significantly changing temperatures. And\nbecause the oceans hold 97% of Earth\u2019s water, they are the largest absorber of\nthe Earth\u2019s excess heat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf the\nexcess heat that is accumulated at the surface because of the greenhouse effect,\nthe oceans have absorbed 93% of it. So we have to ask the question, what is\nthat doing to the ocean?\u201d says Adolf. \u201cWhen we\u2019re trying to understand how\nclimate change is going to\u2014and does\u2014affect the oceans, we have to do that under\nthe caveat that we know very little about the oceans to begin with.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adolf,\nwho studies harmful algal blooms, says we are already seeing some of the\neffects of climate change on the oceans. As water warms, it expands, causing\nsea levels to rise. That excess heat absorption also affects ocean circulation.\nAnd as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide to cool the Earth, carbonic acid\nincreases, causing the pH to acidify. In many cases, these changes to ocean\nphysics and chemistry translate to negative impacts on ocean life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOceans\nare losing oxygen,\u201d says Adolf. \u201cIn terms of harmful algae blooms, the\ncombination of existing nutrient pollution, and climate change increasing the\ntemperature of the ocean and extending the growing season, is creating larger\nwindows of opportunity for harmful toxic species to grow in the environment and\ncontaminate shellfish and fish resources.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Assistant\nProfessor of Biology Keith Dunton, who studies fish species native to the\nMid-Atlantic, says fish are already being affected by temperature changes\nalone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because oxygen levels are affected by warming oceans, fish essentially have to work harder and increase their rate of breathing in order to extract enough oxygen out of the water to survive, says Dunton. It\u2019s theorized that because of this, fish species will begin decreasing in size over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGills can only extract so much oxygen from the water to support a body size,\u201d says Dunton. \u201cIf our oceans get deoxygenated because of warmer temperatures\u2014warmer water has less oxygen than colder water\u2014the fish will meet a critical maximum, and they will not be able to grow larger than a certain size because their body cannot extract the oxygen for it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of factors such as this, many fish and shellfish species are migrating toward the poles to survive. Dunton says this is a major cause of concern not only for biologists, but also for the individuals and local economies that rely on the shifting industry. As fish species move north, fisherman will need to travel farther distances to attain the same catch. And as species such as the American lobster and Atlantic cod move farther north, there is a possibility these fisheries will cross international boundaries and be lost entirely for U.S. fishermen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compounding\nthe problem: as fish species from southern states move north into regions that\nare cool enough for them but have not yet experienced an outmigration of other fish,\nthe range of the species contracts, says Dunton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we get is fish coming to New Jersey have to suddenly move up farther; then we get an influx of southern fish\u2014species that we hadn\u2019t seen before,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is contracting their overall range … This eventually leads to what we say will enable harvesting to extinction, because the habitat the fish have gets smaller and smaller and smaller, and then eventually they\u2019re stuck in this isolated island in the ocean based on temperature.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, read Part V of this series: Lay of the Land<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate change is suffocating our oceans. That\u2019s just the start of our problems say two marine biologists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":8321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Uncategorized","issue":"Spring 2020","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8378"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11086,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions\/11086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}