Potential Effects on Future Consumerism

        While there is evidence that points towards climate change being cause by anthropogenic factors, it is still unclear how long we can keep living the way we do now, before we cause catastrophic climate change. As you read through the blog about ocean stratification, and phytoplankton being negatively effected by high temperatures which can then lead to various other species being effected by these changes. The changes seen in phytoplankton are especially worrisome as they changes in phytoplankton productivity can negatively influence other species and effect the global carbon cycles. Many of the marine species depend on the phytoplankton species for food, and as this source of food starts diminishing due to increase temperatures and increase ocean stratification it can cause species in different trophic levels to either go extinct or switch their prey.  Phytoplankton are at the bottom of the food chain and thus provide food for fishes such as salmon, which are food for higher level organisms and any disturbance in the food chain can cause disturbance in consumer fishing. There will be decrease fish supply and countries whose diets depend heavily on seafood (like Japan) may be greatly affected by this. 

 

With decreasing in phytoplankton productivity we may also see decrease in CO2 being sequestered in the oceans and more being in the atmosphere (Behrefed). Oceans are one of the biggest sources of carbon sink and it’s the phytoplankton that take up the carbon and turn it into O2 that. As phytoplankton productivity decreases so does the photosynthesis and we will see more CO2 in the atmosphere and less oxygen in not only in the atmosphere but also in the ocean. 

"Not only do plankton provide food for marine mammals and commercially important fish, they also play a fundamental role in the functioning of marine ecosystems by providing half of the global primary production and contributing substantially to biogeochemical cycling" (Richardson & Schoeman). Climate change only further exacerbate this problem, through increase in ocean temperature, leading to ocean stratification, leading to changes in plankton abundances and leading to negative affects on certain marine species. It is for this reason that we need to start making changes in order to prevent negative consequences from occurring. If we do not reduce anthropogenic climate changes, then everything discussed in the previous pages will only exacerbate.