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Past marine ecosystem changes

33 important questions on Past marine ecosystem changes

How do marine communities respond to climate change?

- Individualistic range changes
- Changes in composition
- Changes in body size

What do sea levels changes have an effect on?

- At marine realm

they affect habitat for organismsn in tropical, temperate and artic regions

What is the influence van CO2 on the seawater?

- It dissolves in sewater -> change its acificty -> affects the growth of calcium carbonate-secreting organisms (corals + clam)

What are the major drivers of marine responses to climate change?

- Temperature
- Sea level
- Circulation
- Acidifaction

What is the effect of temperature on the oceans?

It was a profound effect on the distribution of marine organisms

What is the effect of precipation change on the oceans?

Has only a little effect

What do range shit lead to?

- Changes in community composition
- Sometimes transitory, sometimes long-lasting

What happend to Benthic organisms and why?

- More diversity during interglacial periods and less during glacial
- Because of nutrients shifts because of temperature changes

When is plankton more diverse?

In glacial periods more then when the waters were warmer

What are different responses to climate change?

- simple range shifts in response to temperature
- Or, by changes in nutrients availability and freshwater inputs

Are latitudinal shits evident as well?

Yes, poleward with warming, towards the equator with cooling

Why is body size important with regard to marine range changes?

- Larger bodies organisms are more likely to undergo range expansion as climate changes
- Larger bodied organisms are more invasive when introduced in another range

In which two ways does global warming fuel sea levels?

Water expands as it warms -> higher mean global temperature -> rise in sea level due to thermal expansion
Melting of land ice

Why does melting of sea ice not have any effect on sea levels?

- Because sea ice already displaces water
- It could profound food web implications but it is not a contributor to global sea level rise

What are the two major types of ocean circulation?

- Thermohaline circulation
- Changes in teleconnections

What happens with thermohaline circulation?

- Input of large pulses of freshwater in the North Atlantic shuts this circulation down
- Light freshwater dilutes the heavier saline water of the Gulf stream -> preveting it from sinking -> breaking the conveyor belt effect of the circulation

Why is the nutrient accumulation so important?

- It makes the upwelling zones of the circulation the 'breakbasket' for the base of many marine food chains
- This nutrients upwelling results in high productivity of phytoplankton -> high diveristy + abundance of other levels of food chain + rich fisheries

What happens with the change in teleconnections?

- Alteration in global teleconnections -> changes in ocean circulation coupled with changes in atmospheric circulation -> marine systems respond rapidly to changes in these circulation systems

What happens when weather patterns occur on a large scale?

- They have repercussions throughout the world
- Change is one area may result in changes in many other areas due to connections

What happens when the ocean CO2 and PH levels change?

This affects the ability of organisms to form hard calcium carbonate structures that can be preserved in the fossil records

What are tropical corals?

Major ecosystem engineers that form calcium and carbonate reefs

What is the influence of high CO2?

- Changed PH and saturation sate of seawater, favoring organisms that secreted their shells in the calcite variant of calcium carbonate

Which two factors do correlate in in corals?

Growth rates with temperature

What is the growth of scleractinian corals sensitive to?

- Salinity
- Turbidity
- Temperature
- Calcium carbonate saturation state

When is there less photosyntehetic productivity?

- high salinity
- high temperature

What does turbidity reduce?

- light input
- photosynthesis in corals

What does the PH and calcium carbonate staturation state of seawater determine?

- The rate of secretion and the ability to secrete the coral's skeleton

Due to what can salinity change on regional scales?

- Due to alternations in ocean mixing
- Thermohaline circulation
- Varies between regions due to differences in evaporation and upwelling

What is turbidity and how can it vary? What does it reduce?

- It is a local phenomenon
- It can vary due to changing in sea level, continential erosion
- It reduced the amount of light, so reducing coral growth

What were reefs earlier composed of? And now?

- caclifying organisms, tabulate and rugate corals
- Now sceleratinian corals emerge now

What are reef gaps and what does it correspont to?

= periods in which no reefs occur in the fossil record

Correspond to the major mass extinction
Rugose and tabulate became extinct

What do modern scleractinian corals include?

- Warm-water, reef building corals
- Solitary cold and deep water corals

What are human problems in tropical reefs?

- Development of near-shore land
- Fishing pressure

This all influences turbidiy and food-chain structure and function

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Climate Change Ecology

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