Riley Davis

April 20, 2015

9:55pm

Climate Change is defined by Dictionary.com as “a long-term change in the earth's climate, especially a change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature.” This means that climate change is totally geared toward the future and there will be trends that follow. A trend that is now in action caused by climate change is the warming of our local ocean water here in Santa Cruz. Due to the rise in temperature during this summer, the temperature of the ocean was raised. As a result, the ocean habitat has changed in many ways.

The warm water seen this summer and fall in Santa Cruz caused new growth of tropical plants. New types of algae blooms have popped up in the area which affects how many species in the ocean eat. Another issue related to food for our ocean’s animals, krill do not grow in warm waters. This means that many of the beloved humpback and blue whales we see here in the Monterey Bay are not around without any food. This also changes everything about the chemistry of the bay. Without decomposing whale waste, many tiny organisms do not get food, fish do not prosper, plants do not grow, things go wrong. With our oceans being polluted even more than being warmed, it just creates a bigger catalyst to this issue.

The global warming or climate change will cause future species to grow in our Monterey Bay, others to die, and many to become displaced. To stop climate change, we keep trying to live clean and using our resources to their fullest while we still have them.