Today in class we leaned about the ocean and what physically happens to it all the time. First off, we learned about currents. There are two main causes of currents: the wind blowing over the surface of the water causes surface currents; and the changing water tempurature causes deep water currents because of the fact that warm water rises and cold water sinks. We also learned about waves. Waves are caused by wind. The reason that waves break on the beach is because when the wave gets into shallow water, the friction from the ground causes a differrence in speed between the top and the bottom, and the momentum causes the wave to break. The last thing we talked about is El Nino. This is a phenomenon where the normal low pressure on the western side of the Pacific moves and becomes more centralized in the pacific. This causes the deep water currents to be cut in half, and the ocean to become warmer.
This struck me as a serious concern for the marine life living there. We had learned earlier in the class that a change as little as .6 of a degree Celcious in temperature can have drastic consequences for the organisms living in that environment. Because El Nino happens about every year, this could be killing off hundreds, or even thousands, of fish. This also could affect the people who rely on fishing as their way of life. I think it’s important that we try and figure out how much this affects the organisms living in the affected areas, and what they do to adapt and survive.
