Oceans.
Basically we are killing the Oceans. .
About 85% of Fisheries have been over fished. According to the WWF, "53% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, and 32% are overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion". http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/problems_fishing/
By 2048, fisheries for currently fished species will collapse.
90% of Sharks and Rays are gone. see...http://www.saveoursharks.com.au/
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
Climate change is causing the oceans to become more acidic.
Pre industrial revolution, a couple hundred years ago, the oceans had a pH of 8.3. It is currently about pH 8.2.
It is predicted it could fall to pH 7.8 by the year 2100.
(Note: pH above 7.0 is alkaline. Below 7.0 is acid. Lemon juice has pH of about 2. When they say "ocean acidification", they mean becoming less alkaline and moving in the direction of becoming an acid. Whether it becomes acid is not relavent as long before that it will cause major problems. Small changes can be dramatic. For example, in humans, normal blood pH ranges between 7.35 and 7.45. A drop in blood pH of 0.2-0.3 can cause seizures, comas, and even death.)
THE EFFECT is it gets harder for marine animals to make calcium carbonate, coral reefs, skeletons and shells because the CO2 turns the free carbonate ions in the water to bicarbonate so it is no longer available to the animals.
Image from : http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification
About 50% to 85% of Earths oxygen is produced from the oceans from phytoplankton.
There are two types of zooplankton that build shells, foraminifera and pteropods.
Zooplankton feed on bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, other zooplankton.
Larger animals eat zooplankton then larger animals eat them all the way up the food chain to humans.
Links:
http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-acidification
PLASTIC IN THE OCEANS
There are 5 main permanent garbage dumps in
the oceans containing largely plastic.
http://www.plasticoceans.net/the-facts/environmental-impact/
