How Global Warming Affects the Ecosystem

How Global Warming Affects the Ecosystem: Because global warming has a profound impact on the surface of the earth and the ocean, it's not surprising that it affects the earth's ecosystem. Species depend on habitat that is consistent enough to live. Global warming is changing habitat and endangering this species.

How Global Warming Affects the Ecosystem

One of the habitats that have been affected by global warming is the Polar Region. Large amounts of ice melt at both poles. This makes it difficult for species in this region to survive. For example, the habitat of polar bears is changed. Once they can swim a short distance from ice clots to ice clumps, it no longer happens.

Now, the ice drifts so far that many sinking polar bears try to swim. According to the US Geological Survey, the number will decrease by half in the next forty years. Melting polar ice caps will be too much for most polar bears to survive. Global warming will eventually cause its extinction if left unchecked.

Global warming drives 2,000 species reported to the poles. The climate is warmer in plant and animal habitat. They naturally lean toward cooler climates that will match the previous climate in the region they left behind. They move at a speed of 3.8 miles per decade.

Another ice habitat damaged by global warming is the home of penguins in Antarctica. They have decreased in number rapidly over the past 25 years. In fact, in that amount of time, 33% of the penguins were lost. Global warming that melts ice has made their habitat unfriendly to them.

Global warming may soon make alpine pastures a part of the past. Already, in the Washington Olympic Mountains, sub-alpine forests have entered and taken over the alpine pasture site. In the past 60 years, species in the alpine region have moved to the mountains at a speed of 20 feet per decade. This leaves little doubt that global warming has an impact on the alpine region.

The health of sea creatures in their habitat is also threatened by global warming. In California, marine life moves north. This is a behavior designed to keep creatures at the temperature most similar to those they adapt. They naturally do this as a means of survival. When all the water is too warm, they have nowhere to go.

Other sea creatures are in danger of extinction due to global warming. This happens because extra carbon dioxide in the air mixes with sea water. This changes the acidity of the water.

Marine plants and animals are then in an environment that is not suitable for them. If this global warming takes place, many will not be able to survive. For example, 97% of the earth's coral reefs can disappear if there is a temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Destruction of ecosystems by global warming has begun. Because all species are needed to support each other, the whole world will suffer when species are lost. Only a joint effort on the part of all humans will help the situation.