Greenhouse gas altering biodiversity of the oceanic ecosystem

Level of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere is increasing, leading to rise in temperature of earth. Omg, can you imagine a time machine blender?!This increase is always a big question for scientists. Scientists are continuously trying to find, “how to minimize this effect?” They also want to know which organisms will thrive and which will perish in the environment of tomorrow.

Climate change is already having noticeable impacts on biodiversity. According to the research published in Nature Geoscience on June 30, increasing levels of carbon dioxide appear to be changing the biodiversity of the oceanic ecosystem, most notably the keystone bacterial organisms that form the foundation of the ocean's food-chain. 

The finding warns about the changes to populations of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) will have implications for every living thing in the ocean. These bacteria obtain energy through photosynthesis. They convert nitrogen (which is inert) into usable form, that most other organisms need to survive. . Nitrogen-fixing not only allows some plants to continue growing even when nitrate and ammonium have run out, but also that it replenishes those other forms of nitrogen, fertilising the ocean. Any change in the population of these organisms can alter food chain.

Researcher David Hutchins, from the University of Southern California, and his team studied two major groups of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria: Trichodesmium and Crocosphaera. Trichodesmium forms large floating colonies big enough to see with the naked eye and makes vast "blooms" in the open ocean. Crocosphaera is also very abundant but is a single-celled, microscopic organism.

Previous research showed that these two types of cyanobacteria should be some of the biggest "winners" of climate change, thriving in high CO₂ levels and warmer oceans. However, those previous studies only examined one or two strains of the organisms.

The University of Southern California has a massive culture library of strains and species of the organisms assembled by its Associate Professor Eric Webb. Hutchins and his team by using the culture library was able to show that some strains grow better at CO2 levels not seen since the start of the Industrial Revolution, while others will thrive in the future "greenhouse" Earth.

"It's not that climate change will wipe out all nitrogen fixers; we've shown that there's redundancy in nature's system. Rather, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide changes specifically which nitrogen fixers are likely to thrive," Hutchins explained. "And we're not entirely certain how that will change the ocean of tomorrow."