Are Marine Species inching towards Mass Extinction?

27 of the world’s ocean experts met up in Oxford recently and compiled a report that is one of the most shocking revelations of this century. The experts believe that climate change, global warming and man’s continuous interference with nature has made the situation so fragile that all the oceans of the world face risk of mass extinction of marine life. It is something that has not been heard for tens of millions of years.

The experts pointed out some grave issues that are leading to the inevitable destruction. These are,

• Dying coral reefs
• Invasive species interfering with natural growths and disturbing biodiversity
• Ever expanding open water ‘dead zones’
• Massive decrease in big fishes
• Increase in toxic algae blooms

The meeting of the renowned scientists was sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), to evaluate the different studies and researches done of marine life and analyse the present day scenario. The scientist found that in recent years ocean biodiversity, and natural balance has deteriorated drastically leading them to think that any day in a few years from now, oceans species may actually face mass extinction.

What makes their prediction worth taking notice is that five previous mass extinctions that occurred on planet Earth had similar start up points and were precinct with similar events.

These symptoms, moreover, say the experts could be the harbinger of wider disruptions in the interlocking web of biological and chemical interactions that scientists now call the Earth system .

“The results are shocking,” said Alex Rogers, an Oxford professor who heads IPSO and co-authored the report. “We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime.”

According to the report the three main problems that are leading to death of oceans are,

1. Global warming
2. Acidification
3. Dwindling oxygen level called Hypoxia

Individually, these threats have been known to corrupt the natural world but when studied in unision, the threats seem more prolific and bigger than ever believed.

“We have underestimated the overall risks, and that the whole of marine degradation is greater than the sum of its parts,” Rogers said. “That degradation is now happening at a faster rate than predicted.”

It is now believed that the pace of degradation of earth has surpassed the worst-case scenarios laid out by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its landmark 2007 report.

It is known that global warming is the result of increased Carbon dioxide dispelled into the atmosphere. It is also this that leads to more carbon accumulation and increased acidification of the oceans. Till the oceans can bear, they are acting as massive sponge that soak up the excess carbon, but a saturation point will arise when the carbon becomes too much and leads to mass death of all the living species in the marine world. That this will eventually threaten existence of other living beings too is a given.

“The rate at which carbon is being absorbed is already far greater now than during the last globally significant extinction of marine species 55 million years ago,” when some 50 percent of deep-sea life was wiped out, the report said.

Future mass extinctions could be even more damaging that the previous ones that happened about 50 million years ago, warn the scientists.

“We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation,” said Daniel Laffoley, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas, and co-author of the report.”And we are also probably the last generation that has enough time to deal with the problems,” he told.

Damage control is needed…and needed right now.

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Article source: Economictimes