Lifeless Oceans
Everyone knows a total of eight planets are there in the entire solar system, out of which only Earth is a planet where life thrives. Exactly in the same way oceans itself have a life inside it. A different world exists there i.e underwater world. There too, like the land of the earth, many lives flourish, be it plants or animals.
But very few people know that – about 50-80% of the oxygen production on earth comes from marine plants. That’s a higher percentage as compared to all tropical rain forests on land. Only one-fourth percent of oxygen is generated from rain i.e. 28%, but most of the total oxygen throughout the world comes from tiny marine plants, and the rest of oxygen comes from other sources. What type of plants are these? Did it use the same process of photosynthesis to give the product of oxygen?
Plankton
Also known as phytoplankton. Plankton is not just one species of ocean’s tiny plant but a large diversity of tiny organisms. Algae, bacteria, crustaceans, mollusks, and more are altogether considered as plankton. They are also known as drifter plants because their very small size doesn’t let them swim against the current of the wave so they drift.
Plankton or phytoplankton uses the same process to get its own energy i.e by photosynthesis. Although it is very tiny in size yet it produces 80% percent of total oxygen throughout the world.
Underwater Ecosystem.
Balance in any situation is a must. Even the ecosystem plays a great role in managing the ecological balance of our environment. The underwater world also has its own ecosystem, which helps to maintain its ecological balance.
Ocean occupied 3/4th percent of a total earth’s surface. Therefore the marine ecosystem is obviously greater than the surface ecosystem.
Although the earth is suitable for the existence of life it has its resources in limited amounts. This makes clear why ecological balance is important.
Disbalancing marine ecosystems.
As we know tiny marine plants i.e phytoplankton produces more than half percent of total oxygen on earth (i.e 50-80%) throughout the world. And all these events are possible only because of sufficient balance in the marine ecological chain.
But, is the underwater ecosystem safe today? If not, what is the reason behind it? Who is responsible?
And the answer is mankind. Humans are responsible for distributing the underwater Ecosystem by overfishing.
Overfishing.
Overfishing is the removal of the species of fishes from a body of water at a rate that the species cannot replenish, resulting in those species becoming underpopulated in that area. Which may affect the marine ecosystem.
Millions of fishes nowadays were harvested just for the taste or just for fun. But the result can be dangerous for the species as well as for the marine ecosystem.
For maintenance of a good ecological balance, the presence of every species is a must. Here a healthy ecosystem is needed for the recovery of overfishing, but the marine ecosystem is already upset because of overfishing.
How overfishing affects marine as well as humans and other species.
For survival, the air is the primary compound. The air in the form of carbon dioxide was consumed by plants and in the form of oxygen were consumed by animals.
And oceans are responsible for the production of three-fourth percent of total oxygen on earth. But, overfishing may affect it.
As we know it very well that, oxygen is produced by a process called photosynthesis, where plants take Carbon dioxide and release oxygen. That means for the fresh oxygen, carbon dioxide is needed for plans.
If overfishing leads to a decreasing population of fishes results in disbalance in the marine ecosystem. So, the production of oxygen may also reduce.
Therefore, harvesting the resources in a sustainable form is a must.
Oceans without fishes.
The oceans we know over centuries, as the habitat of marine life. Now, what will happen when fishes disappear. What will happen when fishes unable to evolve rapidly to overcome the overfishing scarcity. At those conditions what would the world be like?
Generally, marine life controls the pollution level in the Ocean and makes a healthy marine ecosystem. They ensure good habitat for marine plants called phytoplankton, responsible for more than half percent of total oxygen production on earth’s atmosphere.
Moreover, the extinction of marine organisms will leave behind many problems, like lifeless oceans. Means, the importance of oceans in our life is not limited. Marine has its own ecosystem that doesn’t mean it has no relation to the surface ecosystem. Everything in this world whether it’s biotic or non-biotic is directly or indirectly related to each other. Each and every biodiversity must in need its habitat.
Different species of a particular ecosystem play an important role to maintain the ecological balance in a sustained way. So, oceans without fishes, are lifeless.
Are our oceans dying?
There are about 2000 known species, lives in the ocean. And perhaps billions of marine species were still unknown. But these species were in danger due to human activities. According to a report, only 15-20 percent of oceans have a good marine ecosystem and the rest has been destroyed by pollution and over-exploitation.
The marine ecosystem is like a soul to the oceans. Without marine animals and organisms, oceans are like a body without a soul. Yes, it is true that our oceans are dying. Every year billions of tons of fishes were wasted. The exploitation is so fast that fishes couldn’t be reproduced to meet their population. Moreover, industrial pollution from farms, factories, and boats fills marine environments with harmful chemicals, while plastic pollution is turning large sections of the ocean into hazardous obstacle courses, the report notes.
How much of oceans are dying?
Ocean was formed as a source of life on this planet earth. But unfortunately, around 80% of, oceans are damaged by human interference. And the reason for this is none other than pollution, exploitation, garbage dumping.
As it is mentioned earlier that only 20% of oceans have a good marine ecosystem. It clarifies that more than 50% of the oceans are empty.
Why Oceans are dying?
Every ecosystem has its own habitat, and in the absence of habitats, the ecosystem is meaningless. Basically, an ecosystem is a geographical area where plants, animals, and other organisms as well as climate, weather, and landscape function together to form cyclic life called a habitat.
Oceans are dying i.e the marine ecosystem gets continuously disturbing, as a result, it’s affecting marine life. And without marine life oceans are lifeless.
Oceans are being harmed in many ways like air pollution,
How air pollution hurts oceans?
A good climate condition for any ecosystem is a must to run a healthy life cycle.
But due to the air pollution climate change nowadays, affecting oceans by rising up its global underwater temperature, which directly affects marine life. A report published by the World Meteorological Organization says that 90 percent of energy trapped by the greenhouse gases goes into the Oceans. This is the reason for a drastic rise in the underwater temperature.
As it is very well known that our planet Earth is covered by three-fourth of its total area by oceans, pollution of air affects it faster as compared to any other factors. Studies say that human activities or artificial development are the main causes of pollution, on the other side natural causes like a volcanic eruption and forest fire are partially responsible. The byproducts of the combustion of fuel from vehicles, factories pollute the air and further get deposited into oceans. This process by which pollutants get deposited in oceans is called atmospheric deposition.
The classes of air pollution with the vastest possibility to damage the quality of water are nitrogen, mercury, other metals, combustion emissions, and pesticides. These are the components that highly affect the ocean’s water, also responsible for the rise-up of the underwater temperature.
Water pollution.
Every year billions of tonnes of waste enter the oceans. Where does it come from? And what happens to this garbage? Most of these pollutants find their way to oceans through human society. They know how to clean their locality but, they don’t know where it goes after they throw it. This garbage finds its way to oceans and other water sources.
At the beach, tidal waves pull it into the ocean. Some of the pollutants float on water, some of them sink and some of them were eaten by marine animals. But unfortunately, it doesn’t end here. These types of garbage were highly responsible for turning the quality of water into toxicity.
Which further directly affects the habitats of the marine ecosystem.
Overfishing.
As we know different species of an ecosystem play a great role in maintaining the ecological balance. Overexploitation of fishes nowadays continuously affecting, the number of species.
Here the marine ecosystem is disturbing because of it. The population of fishes was decreasing, since the rate of exploitation is higher than their reproduction. And it assumed that in the coming 30 years we were going to face a shortage of this species i.e oceans are dying.
Are oceans completely going to die in the coming years?
Oceans are covered about three-fourth on earth’s surface. And obviously the home of billions of species. These species make the ocean clean and also play a huge role to regulate the climate. But they are facing disturbance from our activities. altered temperature and circulation to overfishing to acidification to plastic pollution.
But what will happen, to next coming year? Some articles say that by the year 2050 the world is going to see mass destruction over marine life. The life of the ocean totally depends on its ecosystem. And it gets continuously affecting, by pollution and over-exploitation. Every year billions of fish were wasted. Is it not a wake-up call for us that we are going to face see foods in the coming few years.
Plastic garbage is also a big issue as it turns ocean water acidic. Further, it affects the marine ecosystem as well as the atmosphere by acid rain. These continuous events say that the world is going to face mass destruction over marine life and resources.
But possibilities also say that it can be saved. It’s all in our hands. The government of different countries, taking steps towards these issues. But overall we also are part of this world so, it’s our duty to stop polluting our environment and over-exploitation of resources.
Because there is a proverb in our language ” बूंद बूंद से सागर बनता है ” means
Drop by drop makes the ocean.