Climate change is a well-known topic in today's society. There is friction between those claiming climate change as result from man-made Global Warming versus it just being a natural cycle. Either way, climate change is occurring, America is constantly seeing all-time highs and all-time lows in temperatures, so it is obviously there. But what is most important is the effect that climate change has on our ecosystems, notably our oceans. A rise in the planet wide ambient temperature, even just a few degrees over a span of many years has drastic affects because many habitats simply cannot adapt as fast as change is occurring. With a rise in temperature comes a rise in sea level, rising sea level is harmful to most marine in many ways ranging from coral bleaching to decreasing of marine diversity; aside from water temperature, the atmosphere is battling the ocean over the storage of carbon dioxide. In the end, none of it leads to happy ending for the ocean if left unchecked.

One of the biggest topics in environmental science is carbon dioxide and its role as a greenhouse gas; as a greenhouse gas it traps heat in the atmosphere, subsequently warming up the atmosphere. What most people do not know though, is that most of the carbon dioxide on the planet is absorbed by the oceans (Rod Fujita). Many of it being stored in marine plants and algae, however, the ocean is reaching its limit. It can store the carbon dioxide, but the problem is that it is being produced faster than the ocean can process it. Humans have been lucky, but they have essentially filled the ocean up and will eventually see an even greater rise once the ocean starts rejecting the carbon dioxide. Too much of the carbon dioxide slowly affects the acidity of the ocean, which is bad because too much change in pH (measure of acidity/ basic) often has detrimental effects on organisms. Most organisms can only live within a narrow pH range. One of the main marine organisms affected by the increase in acidity are organisms with calcium carbonate shells. The more acidic waters slowly weaken the shells over time, thinning them and breaking them down, eventually rendering their meaning useless. And when an animal relies on a shell for protection, but the shell is practically useless, then the animal becomes easy prey. Increase in mortality faster than the animal can adapt to the change and the animal eventually becomes extinct. 

With an increase in surface temperature of water, the water is able to evaporate at a quicker rate. With the excess evaporation and warming of water comes storms, and lots of them. There has recently been a large surge in storms and storm weather, and many of them are due in part to the fact they can form much more sporadically (Pristine Seas). Now, rain is good and storms can be beneficial indeed, but it is when they happen too frequently beyond the norm and when they occur too often and strong enough that people cannot recover. People can still be repairing from the last storm when all the sudden fiercer storms start popping up left and right, and at that point people are helpless. Even more harshly affected are the animals, they simply cannot adapt as quickly as the environmental fluctuations occur. Their lives revolve around a generally narrow threshold of climate characteristics; since they are so used to a certain cycle, whenever a drastic situation occurs, let alone a long term one, their entire way of life is thrown out of whack. So say you have a flourishing coastal ecosystem, only problem is, storm waters have a large impact on the ecosystem with it being so close to the surface. Well one volley of storms is doable, but when you get consistent yet irregular storm waters and surges, then the ecosystem is thrown into shock. It simply cannot recover in the time that these new and stronger storms can form.

Many animals rely on temperature change for breeding and reproduction. At certain temperatures they know to begin breeding season. Not all temperatures are suitable and thus vary from organism to organism. With that said, many animals are used to certain fluctuations, but they are cyclic and part of the animal's routine. But when water is heated (or cooled) outside of the organism's regular cycle, it not only throws that animal off, but subsequent animals as well- animals that rely on the former whether as prey or by some other association. Say at certain temperatures, the leatherback turtle lays their eggs on a given beach and will then hatch at around the same time every year; many birds will visit or migrate to this beach at the same time in order to pick off and eat the newly hatched eggs. But if there is an irregular fluctuation in temperature, whether it be early or late, then turtles will then follow the new temperature, laying their eggs at time now completely separate from what the predatory birds are used to. For many of the birds that have been migrating, the newborn turtles could be vital to their diets in replenishing energy for the rest of their migration. These birds will then either starve or postpone the departure in order to find food. Now they begin their own altered cycle which will then affect other animals, and continuing on like a domino effect. All because the turtles laid their eggs at the wrong time.

Continuing with how animals are directly affected by the temperature change, it must also be noted that the animals most associated with the ice are taking an even bigger hit. The polar and animals, i.e. the seals and polar bears are having the hardest times adapting. Their homes are literally melting away from beneath them. Polar bears live within an extremely narrow niche, unlike their other bear cousins which are adaptable to a variety of diets and seasons, the polar bear only knows ice. Although they spend a lot of time in the water, they are not fish, so they have to surface and rest on land. The more the ice melts away, the less land they have to take shelter on. They cannot sleep in care for their young in the water, they need land for that. Decrease in ice-land also means a decrease in places for them to find animals. A mother cannot feed her cubs with a seal if there is no land to hunt the seal on; in other words, it is a continuous cycle. The warmer the earth, the less polar ice there is, and the less polar ice, the less chance of survival for the few polar animals.

One of the staples of life in the oceans is coral. Coral essentially makes up the 'cities' of the marine world. Coral itself is an actual animal that also has a calcium carbonate shell (so it too has a weakened shell in acidic water), but it is this shell that is almost like an underwater infrastructure. Many other marine animals use the large coral reefs (colonies of coral) as a place of shelter, feeding, and also as breeding grounds. A good healthy coral reef is a sign of a healthy ocean environment. What also makes the coral unique is that it has photosynthetic organisms living in its tissue and shell. In other words, it has plant-like things in its body that gives it energy. So they live in conjunction with the each other, so when one begins to falter, then the other mirrors it. This is where climate change comes in. When the coral undergoes stress it begins to kick out its little photosynthetic friends. The stress comes from a rise in temperature, and although it essentially kicks out its lifeline, the coral can still live, albeit at much slower growth rate along with its loss of color. But if it does not recover in time, then the coral will in fact die. And when something dies, then it cannot keep growing, therefore stunting the growth of the reef (Climate Change Impacts on the Marine Environment). Once the reef begins to die off, then it loses its potency as a habitat and its friendly fish inhabitants will slowly leave or die off.

The latter described how coral is affected by rising water temperature, but there is another way the coral is affected by climate change: it drowns. Now it does not really drown, but the rise in water level sort of limits the effectiveness of the photosynthetic organisms. These organisms rely on light, just like your average terrestrial plant does; that is why you find coral in shallow water, water that has clear reception of the sunlight. Well the more water rises over the coral, the further the organisms are from the sun. Once the water rises to a height above the coral, then the photosynthetic organisms can no longer function, therefore not producing any nutrients for the coral itself. Without nutrients then the coral dies; once again, when the coral dies, then all other fish and marine organisms that rely on it must flee or perish.

Climate change has a relatively wide umbrella of an effect being that it has many subsequent effects itself. But for that reason, it is the biggest in response to hikes in temperature. Essentially if the climate was able to warm up without causing sea levels to rise, then there would not be as much of a problem. But that is not the case; see, with a rise in atmosphere temperatures comes the melting of polar ice and that new water steadily adds to the original water level. There is also the fact that water expands as it is heated, so that adds even more to current levels as well. With that said, many problems come simply from water being a couple degrees warmer. Whether it is caused by man or just part of a natural cycle, temperatures are still fluctuating. Maybe there is a little bit of both in the mix, either way, humans play a vital role since we can either try and adapt and find more efficient ways of living, or we can just keep on as we are and hope we do not screw up too badly.

