Climate Change
Although Antarctica is said to be a pristine and untouched land a lot of destruction does occur in the region. The most immense threat to Antarctica is Climate Change/Global Warming. Climate Change affects Antarctica because it causes the ocean to heat up as well as loss of sea ice and land based ice. The West Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming places on earth. As a result of this, ice shelves, ice slopes and glaciers have collapsed which have a huge effect on the abiotic in addition to the biotic features of Antarctica as they are slowly decreasing in reproduction numbers. Therefore, climate change leads to: water level rising, warming of the sea water, melting of ice caps/glaciers at an alarming rate and also affecting the biotic and abiotic features of Antarctica. The photo to the right shows how climate change affects Antarctica.
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Fishing/TourismMany of the world's oceans are overfished, legally and illegally. Although Antarctica is not overly fished at the moment, in the future it could be as technology will become better and more boats will be built to suit the Antarctic conditions. If this does happen people will fish for krill which will then affect the food cycle and lead to reduced numbers in biotic features and possibly more abiotic features because there is no animals to eat them. In addition to fishing tourism is a big threat to Antarctica. This is because people who are travelling to Antarctica have to take food supplies to survive but some people also bring non native animals and plants such as rats which create problems for other animals that are native to the area. As well as creating danger to other animals it also may cause oil leaks and leave unnatural substances. |
Invasive SpeciesInvasive Species are plants, animals or living organisms that are not native to a country and are invading and possibly causing damage to the area. They are being taken to Antarctica by people on ships who carry seeds on their clothes or shoes as well as rats who have also travelled by mistake on ships. These seeds and animals, after being in the area for long enough adapt to the harsh climate and then breed which causes a threat to the native animals of Antarctica. Therefore people travelling to Antarctica need to be careful as to what they are taking over there. |
Pollution (In The Air)Pollution in the air has a massive effect on the whole of Antarctica. There is an ozone hole that has been over Antarctica for over thirty years. These include gases such as Greenhouse gases and CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon) which have a chemical called chlorine, that was supposed to be non-toxic and safe but turns out this certain chemical breaks down the ozone layer above Antarctica. Greenhouse gases affect the region when the sun's energy reflects off the Earth's atmosphere back into space and the rest is absorbed on the Earth’s surface. This then leads to holes in the atmosphere which let the UV rays through from the sun, which then melts Antarctica. Another factor of pollution is when people litter which finds its way to oceans where animals eat it and die as well as fuel in cars which is another chemical that depletes the ozone layer. In conclusion, if we don’t start doing little things to help the ozone layer, Antarctica will continue to rapidly melt away. |