Effects of Climate Change Today
Over 100 years ago, people worldwide began burning more coal and oil for homes, factories, and transportation. Burning these fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These added greenhouses gases have caused Earth to warm more quickly than it has in the past.
How much warming has happened? Scientists from around the world with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tell us that during the past 100 years, the world's surface air temperature increased an average of 0.6° Celsius (1.1°F). This may not sound like very much change, but even one degree can affect the Earth. Below are some effects of climate change that we see happening now.
Sea level is rising. During the 20th century, sea level rose about 15 cm (6 inches) due to melting glacier ice and expansion of warmer seawater. Models predict that sea level may rise as much as 59 cm (23 inches) during the 21st Century, threatening coastal communities, wetlands, and coral reefs.
Arctic sea ice is melting. The summer thickness of sea ice is about half of what it was in 1950. Melting ice may lead to changes in ocean circulation. Plus melting sea ice is speeding up warming in the Arctic.
Glaciers and permafrost are melting. Over the past 100 years, mountain glaciers in all areas of the world have decreased in size and so has the amount of permafrost in the Arctic. Greenland's ice sheet is melting faster too.
Sea-surface temperatures are warming. Warmer waters in the shallow oceans have contributed to the death of about a quarter of the world's coral reefs in the last few decades. Many of the coral animals died after weakened by bleaching, a process tied to warmed waters.
The temperatures of large lakes are warming. The temperatures of large lakes world-wide have risen dramatically. Temperature rises have increased algal blooms in lakes, favor invasive species, increase stratification in lakes and lower lake levels.
Heavier rainfall cause flooding in many regions. Warmer temperatures have led to more intense rainfall events in some areas. This can cause flooding.
Extreme drought is increasing. Higher temperatures cause a higher rate of evaporation and more drought in some areas of the world.
Ecosystems are changing. As temperatures warm, species may either move to a cooler habitat or die. Species that are particularly vulnerable include endangered species, coral reefs, and polar animals. Warming has also caused changes in the timing of spring events and the length of the growing season.
Hurricanes have changed in frequency and strength. There is evidence that the number of intense hurricanes has increased in the Atlantic since 1970. Scientists continue to study whether climate is the cause.
More frequent heat waves. It is likely that heat waves have become more common in more areas of the world.
Warmer temperatures affect human health. There have been more deaths due to heat waves and more allergy attacks as the pollen season grows longer. There have also been some changes in the ranges of animals that carry disease like mosquitoes.
Seawater is becoming more acidic. Carbon dioxide dissolving into the oceans, is making seawater more acidic. There could be impacts on coral reefs and other marine life
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sea monkey
Sea Monkeys are a type of brine shrimp, and a member of the animal family Crustacea, which also includes crabs and lobsters. All crustaceans have a hard shell (known as an exoskeleton) that provides their bodies with support, the way our bones help us keep our shapes. Having a hard shell is great when you’re a small creature in a big ocean! It makes it more difficult for animals to eat the Sea Monkey and get to its gooey parts inside. But there’s a big problem. As the Sea Monkey grows bigger inside the shell, the shell stays the same size. So it needs to shed its shell, but this exposes its soft bodies to the outside world. It’s a perfect time for predators to eat them! (Fortunately, Sea Monkeys don’t have any predators in the little tank, so yours will be safe!) So they want to grow that shell quickly. Once the shell grows back, larger and harder, they are protected until the next time they need to grow bigger!
Sea Monkeys can manufacture their own trehalose, a substance they use to coat their eggs to keep them safe from extreme temperatures and lack of water. Once coated, these eggs are now called cysts and they can live many years in this state. But once the conditions are just right and you add the water to the eggs, they come back to life! This is how Sea Monkeys appear to come instantly to life when you add water!
The males are always smaller than the females (although this doesn’t help if you don’t have any females to use as a comparison!) And if you look closely, you’ll see that the males have pincers coming from under their chins. They use these pincers the way crabs or lobster use their claws, to fight or grab things. The females are generally larger, and once mature, will carry a brown coloured egg sac on their stomachs.
Did you know that when Sea Monkeys are born, they have three eyes? And as they get older and closer to adulthood, they lose that middle eye? (And you’d think that something like that would come in handy!) This is one way to tell when they are full grown, although it is hard to see the third eye. There are other, easier ways to tell when Sea Monkeys are mature. First, they grow bigger — up to 3/4 of an inch long! Second, the males will grow pincers under their chins. Third, you will see an egg sac on the stomach of the female. And finally they will have moulted their shells quite a number of times. If you look on the bottom of the tank, you might see some black things that look like Sea Monkeys. These are discarded shells. Can you tell when they are moulting? It’s hard, but if you watch carefully, you may see them shedding their shells!
Sea Monkeys don’t have brains; they have groupings of nerves called “ganglia.” One of these is found in the Sea Monkey’s head, the other just below the gut. These ganglia send out the messages to the Sea Monkey’s body to do different things, such as eat, or sleep, or chase after another Sea Monkey.
They breathe through their legs, using long tubes that come up from their feet. The gill plates along the sides of their legs help transport the oxygen they need to live! This is why they are called “branchiopods”.
A Sea Monkey’s kidneys aren’t located in its abdomen, the way ours are. Its kidneys are located in its head!
Sea Monkeys have a circulatory system to help move the blood around their bodies. Their hearts, located dorsally in their torsos, pump blood around their tiny bodies, the way our blood is pumped through our circulatory systems. As a note, they have hemoglobin in their blood, as do we. Hemoglobin helps carry oxygen around the body. Strangely, there is an inverse correlation between the amount of oxygen in a Sea Monkey's blood and the outside environment; the more oxygen in the tank, the less in the blood, and vice versa.
Sea Monkeys sometimes appear to be juggling the algae in the tank. Why is this? They are using their little legs to push the algae up to their mouth parts so they can eat it. And sometimes the Sea Monkey will look red. This is because the blue-green algae sometimes metabolizes their bodies to make it appear an orangy colour.
Sea Monkeys can manufacture their own trehalose, a substance they use to coat their eggs to keep them safe from extreme temperatures and lack of water. Once coated, these eggs are now called cysts and they can live many years in this state. But once the conditions are just right and you add the water to the eggs, they come back to life! This is how Sea Monkeys appear to come instantly to life when you add water!
The males are always smaller than the females (although this doesn’t help if you don’t have any females to use as a comparison!) And if you look closely, you’ll see that the males have pincers coming from under their chins. They use these pincers the way crabs or lobster use their claws, to fight or grab things. The females are generally larger, and once mature, will carry a brown coloured egg sac on their stomachs.
Did you know that when Sea Monkeys are born, they have three eyes? And as they get older and closer to adulthood, they lose that middle eye? (And you’d think that something like that would come in handy!) This is one way to tell when they are full grown, although it is hard to see the third eye. There are other, easier ways to tell when Sea Monkeys are mature. First, they grow bigger — up to 3/4 of an inch long! Second, the males will grow pincers under their chins. Third, you will see an egg sac on the stomach of the female. And finally they will have moulted their shells quite a number of times. If you look on the bottom of the tank, you might see some black things that look like Sea Monkeys. These are discarded shells. Can you tell when they are moulting? It’s hard, but if you watch carefully, you may see them shedding their shells!
Sea Monkeys don’t have brains; they have groupings of nerves called “ganglia.” One of these is found in the Sea Monkey’s head, the other just below the gut. These ganglia send out the messages to the Sea Monkey’s body to do different things, such as eat, or sleep, or chase after another Sea Monkey.
They breathe through their legs, using long tubes that come up from their feet. The gill plates along the sides of their legs help transport the oxygen they need to live! This is why they are called “branchiopods”.
A Sea Monkey’s kidneys aren’t located in its abdomen, the way ours are. Its kidneys are located in its head!
Sea Monkeys have a circulatory system to help move the blood around their bodies. Their hearts, located dorsally in their torsos, pump blood around their tiny bodies, the way our blood is pumped through our circulatory systems. As a note, they have hemoglobin in their blood, as do we. Hemoglobin helps carry oxygen around the body. Strangely, there is an inverse correlation between the amount of oxygen in a Sea Monkey's blood and the outside environment; the more oxygen in the tank, the less in the blood, and vice versa.
Sea Monkeys sometimes appear to be juggling the algae in the tank. Why is this? They are using their little legs to push the algae up to their mouth parts so they can eat it. And sometimes the Sea Monkey will look red. This is because the blue-green algae sometimes metabolizes their bodies to make it appear an orangy colour.
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