Hello and welcome to the first action project for my senior STEAM class, Frontiers. In Frontiers, we are learning about the ever-changing world around us. For this action project, we were asked to create a literary review based on the Grand Challenges. A Grand Challenge is a fundamental problem with a wide impact across many subjects. At first, this project seemed daunting. However, once I began researching and connecting the dots between the subjects, it was a breeze. I hope you enjoy this action project.
Our oceans and marine life continue to be one of Earth’s greatest marvels as well as mysteries. Over the years, scientists have wondered how variables such as climate change, human pressures, and evolution have affected the oceans. It is apparent that climate change is a huge issue that looms over the fate of not only humanity, but also our marine life here on Earth. In my research, I have discovered that humans, while a huge part of the climate change problem, may not be the only reason for violent shifts in global change. Simply put, a radical reversal is needed in order for our oceans and marine life to thrive in the future. However, we do not have much time for this radical shift, in fact, according to some, we are 50 to 60 years behind. Luckily, due to changing technologies, these numbers have been proven to be outdated.
Grand Challenge 3
A Grand Challenge is a fundamental problem with a wide impact across many subjects.
The Grand Challenge that I decided to research is GC 3, Understand the Impact of Global Change on Marine Ecosystems. One aspect of global change is climate change, and A.J Richardson et al discuss climate change and dives in specifically on how it affects all ecosystems. “We found that climate change was having a coherent and significant impact across all ecosystems.”(2012). It is evident that biodiversity and adverse reactions to climate change go hand in hand. Regime Shifts and seasonal shifts are sudden changes that are mainly caused by a change in the biodiversity of an ecosystem. “..hyper-diverse regions, such as the Indo-Pacific marine biodiversity hotspot, may be under threat.” ( 2012) This was not the only paper to draw attention to this.
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| Pardini (Regime Shifts in Biologically Diverse Sites) 2010 |
Renata Pardini discusses “regime shifts” in marine ecosystems and how they relate to the diversity of marine life and disagrees with the previous conclusion. “Regime shifts represent fundamental, sudden changes in ecosystem state, and are usually driven by changes to key-variables that are linked to ecological resilience.”( Pardini et al. 2010). So, this research suggests that biodiversity in fact strengthens an ecosystem making it less susceptible to adverse reactions from climate change. Renata Pardini proves this point with charts.
These charts represent the differences between a landscape (or ecosystem) that has diverse organisms removed vs a landscape in which diverse organisms are allowed to coexist with native organisms. “Our results also emphasize the critical importance of taking into account variation in species traits to evaluate biodiversity change across environmental and disturbance agents.” ( Pardini et al. 2010).
Another aspect of global change is human impact. Humans benefit greatly from our ocean ecosystems. In our need, however, we leave consistent damage to the oceanic environment. “Ocean-based activities extract resources, add pollution, and change species composition.” (Halpern et al. 2008). Halpern’s study sought to map out human impact on ocean ecosystems in order to “rationalize spatial management of human activities.” This map shows just how much humans impact our oceans and how much damage we’ve done.
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| Halpern "Mapping Human Impact" 2008 |
“Understanding and quantifying, i.e., mapping, the spatial distribution of human impacts is needed for the evaluation of tradeoffs (or compatibility) between human uses of the oceans and protection of ecosystems and the services they provide” (Halpern Et Al 2008)
Understanding and quantifying our impact is one step of a solution for reversing the damage of climate change.
Some believe that the future of our oceans and the solutions to climate change lie within the oceans themselves. “By 2050 our seas will be viewed as more than a platform for tourism and recreation and rather an ocean for solutions. Our sustainable energy solutions will be aided by marine algae-derived biofuel.” (Leinen 2015) For most people, the fate of our oceans is not at the front of their minds. There is a lack of studies for our oceans and ocean ecosystems. This gap in research has left a whole new world, in terms of climate solutions, undiscovered.
A common thread between authors of this article is greater research put into our oceans. They believe that with more resources put into the ocean, issues like overfishing and ocean acidification can be somewhat reversed. “...In 2050, governments are investing in research and development to establish long-term observatories with sensors to monitor ocean conditions and collect the data necessary to help us understand our changing ocean.” (Susan Avery 2015) A.J. Richardson’s study also pushed for more research for our oceans. His specific research works to establish climate change ecology as a discipline. He found that 55% of biological theories relating to climate change were not tested to be compatible with different climate variables. He explains the effect of this common misstep as such, “These studies could overestimate the effect of climate change, as they do not partition out other pervasive human pressures.” (A.J Richardson Et. Al 2012). Examples of these human pressures are deforestation, pollution, the burning of fossil fuels, and overfishing.
Another solution to climate change? Evolution. “Recent theoretical and empirical work has shown that populations can evolve to cope with increasing stress over rapid time scales.”( Phillip L Munday 2013) This type of evolution is called “evolutionary rescue” and scientists are working to find the trigger of this phenomenon. The future of our oceans has a direct correlation to the future of our generation. This means that it is quite literally in our hands to find solutions to our imminent problems and put them into action. My hope for the future is that our oceans will continue to be one of Earth’s greatest marvels and we can keep discovering new information about them.
Citations
Benjamin Halpern and Et. Al. . “A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Animals .” Science , vol. 319, 2008, doi:10.1126.
Envision 2050: The Future of Oceans - Our World. https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/envision-2050-the-future-of-oceans. Accessed 22 May 2021.
Munday, Philip L., et al. “Predicting Evolutionary Responses to Climate Change in the Sea.” Ecology Letters, vol. 16, no. 12, 2013, pp. 1488–500. Wiley Online Library, doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12185.
Pardini, Renata, et al. “Beyond the Fragmentation Threshold Hypothesis: Regime Shifts in Biodiversity Across Fragmented Landscapes.” PLOS ONE, vol. 5, no. 10, Oct. 2010, p. e13666. PLoS Journals, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013666.
Richardson, Anthony J., et al. “Climate Change and Marine Life.” Biology Letters, vol. 8, no. 6, Dec. 2012, pp. 907–09. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0530.
