3.14 Reading: Assessment preparation

 

 SPECIAL REPORT ON THE OCEAN AND CRYOSPHERE IN A CHANGING CLIMATECH

IPCC Summary for Policymakers

 

The ocean and the cryosphere are very important habitant to the lives of the billions of people in the world. The change in the ocean temperature will affect communities closed to Islands, mountains, coastal areas greatly.

Observed changes and impacts  

 A.1.  The cryosphere has melt, ice sheets, and glaciers levels have reduced with assurance of the increased in earth’s temperature.  Impacting on the layers of the snow cover, and temperature of the sea. Increased in the surface temperature has resulted to more coastal land degradation, impact on the high mountain communities, density stratification in the upper 2000m of the ocean and deterioration of the snow cover. The permafrost temperature has increased across the polar and mountain regions. Arctic and boreal permafrost contained more organic CO2 than the CO2 in the atmosphere.

In the past two decades, evidence of increase temperature in the Arctic is shown in the disappearing sea ice and spring snow in summer and spring respectively.  

Historical changes of the ocean and cryosphere was observed in since 1950, as well as future changes of the greenhouse gases emission shows that many scenarios such as potential change in the average surface water temperature and high latitude making more fresh water flowing into the sea making it less denser and change in the ocean acidity and deoxygenation at a dept. of 2000m, global sea level is risen rapidly due to the loss of  Arctic sea sheet ice and Greenland, including glacier mass are lost,

The IPCC predicted near average mean temperate from 2031-2059 increase of2.0 and end of century 2081 -2100 to be 5. The IPCC report observed that the marine temperature has risen persistently since 1970, the heat has increased up to 90% and consequently the heat wave has doubled as the result of human activities.

Observed Impacts on Ecosystems

Change in the cryosphere and marine ecosystem has impacted many marine, coastal and freshwater species and habitats in the mountain and polar region through the disappearing of ice, snow covering land and permafrost thaw. Species tend to migrate, or go into extinction to certain extents. It changes the partner of marine plant and animal distribution, the economic significant, ecosystem service and their cultural orientations and values.

Figure SPM.2 explained the impact of cryosphere at regional level, hazards occur within the ocean, mountain and polar land areas which affect the ecosystem and human communities, threatening their food security, water resources and quality, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, transportation, tourism as well as cultural.  

 

It is projected that the Greenland and Arctic ice, thaw and snow cover will continue to melt in the 21^st century as the greenhouses emission continue to occur