Global Warming and Pathogens

I hear from day to day a constant steady stream of information lately on global warming and how it will increase sea level rise do to melting glaciers, how we will be having more intense tropical storms and how the temperature is gonna cause certain animals to become extinct due to their degree of tolerable habitat ranges being destroyed due to continued warming. One thig that I do not hear much if any information about is the impacts of rising temperatures on pathogens. Many pathogens such as viruses and bacterium thrive in warmer climates (due to the quicker development of larval stages in warmer waters etc). Thus one could expect that this could have a profound impact on the arctic marine mammals in the north. This is magnified due to the fact that many terrrestrial species that have parasites living on them will migrate northwards due to their expansion of their tolerable habitat nranges due to global warming. These animals ca and will bring with them many diseases that coul wipe out entire species of organisms in the arctic. As well arctic ecosystems are fragile anyway due to their low degree of flux with regard to their climate, they are just not adaptable to large scale changes such as bioinvasion etc. I think we have a little more than meets the eye to worry about. its not just polar bears losing their habitat. All species will be affected (some for the worst and some for the better)

Arctic Ice Shrinking Faster Than We Thought- Satellites Show

A Nasa satellite has documented startling changes in Arctic sea ice cover between 2004 and 2005.
The extent of "perennial" ice - thick ice which remains all year round - declined by 14%, losing an area the size of Pakistan or Turkey.
The last few decades have seen summer ice shrink by about 0.7% per year.
The drastic shrinkage may relate partly to unusual wind patterns found in 2005, though rising temperatures in the Arctic could also be a factor.
The research is reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The change we see between 2004 and 2005 is enormous
The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as the global average; and recent studies have shown that the area of the Arctic covered by ice each summer, and the ice thickness, have been shrinking.
September 2005 saw the lowest recorded area of ice cover since 1978, when satellite records became available.

Its absolutely alarming that this is happening. This will directly lead to so many problems from loss of habitat for many arctic mammals to massive sea level rise globally that could wipe out entire coastal communites. Just when we thought we knew how bad it was getting and we find out it is worst. Damn!

Link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5344208.stm

Some facts on Arctic fish adaptations to their environment

Arctic fishes have many physiological adaptations to help them cope with life in the cold environment of the arctic. The fats in their cell membranes are less saturated than those of southern fishes, a chemical exchange that is equivalent to replacing butter with olive oil – the latter remains more liquid when put in the fridge. This will thus allow fish in the arctic to be able to move much better then say if there cell membranes were more saturated with fats. The enzymes of arctic fishes also tend to be better able to carry out chemical reactions at low temperatures, which is another good example of an organism response to the ecological situation of living in the arctic. However, these cellular compensations are only partially effective. Arctic fishes have much slower metabolisms at 2ºC than southern fishes do at 20ºC. This is evident in the slow movements of many polar fishes, like sculpins, snailfishes, and eelpouts, which can be caught by hand, unlike their temperate counterparts. However, southern fish exposed to low temperatures have much lower metabolic rates than Arctic fish, which shows that although they are slower moving when placed into warmer waters they would actually be more active then temperate fish thus showing that their enzymes are allowing their metabolism to work much more effectively than their southern counterparts. Moreover, slow metabolic rates are not necessarily a disadvantage in cold environments. The slower you use energy means that less energy is required. Thus, arctic fish may benefit from their lethargic lifestyle as their lower energy requirements mean that they do not need as much food to survive and thus would be more adapted to food shortages. This is a great piece of information to know when it comes to the study of arctic biology which is my topic for the major research project in this course

Links

My physiology textbook and introductory biology textbook

Global Warming: "Is It Really Caused By Man"

Today the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change released a report stating among other things that they do not believe global warming can be reversed and that it is 90 % certain that global warming is the result of man (humans). I was curious and researched a little more into the topic and came across a very interesting article just published by the National Post, citing that global warming is not the result of man and that the answer to "global warming extends to mars" (National Post). Imediately I thought to myself how is this possible? Then i read a little further and the explanation came out. One key fact noted is that just like Earth, Mars is experiancing its warmest temperatures in decades as well their polar ice cap is shrinking. This is directly correlated to the same thing that is occuring on Earth. One key arguement stated is that Mars is experiancing a a very similar global warming event without the martians (in our case humans), nor the greenhouse gas increase. The explanation given for this is called a long term change in solar irradiance. It is stated that this change in solar irradiance from the sun is not only responsible for increased warming but also the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This occurs because the warming of the worlds oceans causes an increase in the release of CO2 into the atmosphere due to the capacity of warmer water to hold less carbon dioxide. Another key statement made is that solar irradiance will begin to fall and cooling will begin around 2012 and we will enter a mini ice age begining around 2050.

" Dr. Abdussamatov concluded. "A global freeze will come about regardless of whether or not industrialized countries put a cap on their greenhouse- gas emissions."

Just something to think about!

Links:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=edae9952-3c3e-47ba-913f-7359a5c7f723&k=0

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070202-09443400-bc-un-globalwarming-crn.xml