Impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on aquatic ecosystem – A review.

What is it about?

All living things depend on their natural environment, either directly or indirectly, for their high quality of life, growth, nutrition, and development. Due to the fast emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), the Earth's climate system is being negatively impacted by global warming. Stresses caused by climate change, such as rising and hotter seas, increased droughts and floods, and acrid waters, threaten the world's most populated areas and aquatic ecosystems. As a result, the aquatic ecosystems of the globe are quickly reaching hazardous conditions. Marine ecosystems are essential parts of the world's environment and provide several benefits to the human population, such as water for drinking and irrigation, leisure activities, and habitat for commercially significant fisheries. Although local human activities have influenced coastal zones for millennia, it is still unclear how these impacts and stresses from climate change may combine to endanger coastal ecosystems. Recent studies have shown that rising levels of greenhouse gases are causing ocean systems to experience conditions not seen in several million years, which may cause profound and irreversible ecological shifts. Ocean productivity has declined, food web dynamics have changed, habitat-forming species are less common, species ranges have changed, and disease prevalence has increased due to human climate change. We provide an outline of the interaction between global warming and the influence of humans along the coastline. This review aims to demonstrate the significance of long-term monitoring, the creation of ecological indicators, and the applications of understanding how aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning respond to global warming. This review discusses the effects of current climate change on marine biological processes both now and in the future, describes present climate change concerning historical change, and considers the potential roles aquatic systems could play in mitigating the effects of global climate change.

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Why is it important?

As surface water has collected, the swelling ocean basins have served as a reaction chamber for the evolution of life on Earth and have played a critical part in the planet's continuing climatic change (Brierley and Kingsford, 2009). Planets other than Earth don't have an ocean home to life (Bounama et al., 2007). The ocean, which covers 71% of Earth's surface and continues to play a dominant role in moderating its climate, is responsible for sustaining life (Divoky et al., 2010). The presence of rain, snow, sun, wind, and long-term records of air temperature is often used to characterize climate, which is generally considered an attribute of the atmosphere. These atmospheric variables directly impact the natural ecosystems on land that we are most acquainted with and our everyday activities. Aside from that, changes in atmospheric chemistry have historically and now been caused by human activities, both of which have a natural tendency to cause global warming. However, it is arguable that the ocean is the primary controllable factor in the Earth's climate; without it, the world would be uninhabitable.

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