Question

Suppose a friend says that we don’t need to worry about the rising temperatures associated with global climate change. Her claim is that increased temperature will make planktonic algae grow faster and that carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere faster. She reasons that the sequestered carbon will buried at the bottom of the ocean in calcium carbonate shells. As a result, carbon dioxide will decrease in the atmosphere and see decline in the global climate change. From your knowledge of the groups of protistants, what would be argument?

Answer 1

Explanation:- The above postulates regarding effect of rising temperature on climate change are true to some extent as increasing temperature due green house effect caused by carbon dioxide may increase the rate of photosynthesis through CO2 fertilization effect thereby decreasing the level of carbon dioxide. However having said that increased groth of protistan algae like dinoflagellates , harmful blue green algae HBA release toxic compounds in the aquatic ecosystem. The high temperature decreases the ability of O2 to get dissolve causing hypoxia in the water bodies. Higher temperatures in the marine ecosystem may cause reversible shift in the reaction of carbonic acid releasing back carbon dioxide into the atmosphere accelerating the process of global warming. Therefore anthropogenic activities such as burning of fossil fuels should be minimized in order to mitigate climate change.