As the ocean warms, marine species are relocating toward the poles. Comment.

Category
GS-I
Published
2020-03-30 10:37:00

Subject: Geography

Approach:

Introduction- Discuss the current situation of ocean warming
How ocean warming affect the environment
Suggestive measures
Conclude accordingly

Model Answer

Since pre-industrial times, the world's oceans have warmed by an average of one degree Celsius (1°C). This rising temperatures have led to widespread changes in the population sizes of marine species. A general pattern has been found of species having increasing numbers on their poleward sides and losses toward the equator. The same trend across all groups of marine life we looked at, from plankton to marine invertebrates, and from fish to seabirds.

Ocean warming & its effects:

The ocean absorbs most of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions, leading to rising ocean temperatures.
Increasing ocean temperatures affect marine species and ecosystems. Rising temperatures cause coral bleaching and the loss of breeding grounds for marine fishes and mammals.
Rising ocean temperatures also affect the benefits humans derive from the ocean – threatening food security, increasing the prevalence of diseases and causing more extreme weather events and the loss of coastal protection.
Achieving the mitigation targets set by the Paris Agreement on climate change and limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels is crucial to prevent the massive, irreversible impacts of ocean warming on marine ecosystems and their services.
Establishing marine protected areas and putting in place adaptive measures, such as precautionary catch limits to prevent overfishing, can protect ocean ecosystems and shield humans from the effects of ocean warming.

Required measures to correct the situation:

Limiting greenhouse gas emissions: There is an urgent need to achieve the mitigation targets set by the Paris Agreement on climate change and hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This will help prevent the massive and irreversible impacts of growing temperatures on ocean ecosystems and their services.
Protecting ecosystems: Well-managed protected areas can help conserve and protect ecologically and biologically significant marine habitats. This will regulate human activities in these habitats and prevent environmental degradation.
Restoring marine and coastal ecosystems: Elements of ecosystems that have already experienced damage can be restored. This can include building artificial structures such as rock pools that act as surrogate habitats for organisms, or boosting the resilience of species to warmer temperatures through assisted breeding techniques.
Improving human adaptation: Governments should introduce policies to keep fisheries production within sustainable limits, for example by setting precautionary catch limits and eliminating subsidies to prevent overfishing.

Coastal setback zones which prohibit all or certain types of development along the shoreline can minimise the damage from coastal flooding and erosion.
New monitoring tools can be developed to forecast and control marine disease outbreaks.

Strengthening scientific research: Governments should also increase investments in scientific research to measure and monitor ocean warming and its effects. This will provide more precise data on the scale, nature and impacts of ocean warming, making it possible to design and implement adequate and appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Conclusion:

As the world warms because of climate change, marine animals are moving for the colder waters near the poles. The patterns of warming of the upper layers of the world’s oceans are significantly related to greenhouse gas forcing. Global responses of marine species demonstrate a strong fingerprint of this anthropogenic climate change on marine life. Differences in rates of change with climate change amongst species and populations suggest species’ interactions and marine ecosystem functions may be substantially reorganized at the regional scale, potentially triggering a range of cascading effects.

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Note: You have to write your answers on an A4 size sheet leaving margins on both sides based on UPSC pattern. Mention Your Name on 1st page and Page Number on each page. After writing the answer, Click pictures of each page of your answer sheet, merge them all in a single PDF and upload in the Your Answer Copy section of the same question.