Experts warned that the oxygen-depleted layer on the backside of the Marmara Sea is steadily transferring towards the floor and famous that failure to forestall the growing air pollution can be a catastrophe for the ocean.
According to the info from Middle East Technical University’s (METU) Institute of Marine Sciences, the oxygen degree within the first 30 meters (98 ft) of the Marmara Sea, the place the waters from the Black Sea are current, is measured at 8-9 milligrams per liter, whereas it drops to 1-2 milligrams per liter within the Mediterranean waters ranging from 30 meters, and dips beneath 1 milligram per liter within the layer from the seabed as much as 300 meters beneath the floor.
Based on the long-term information compiled by a challenge dubbed the Marmara Sea Integrated Modeling System (MARMOD) carried out by METU, it was discovered that the oxygen ranges within the Çınarcık basin in jap Marmara have dropped to beneath 0.5 milligrams per liter.
In comparability, within the Eighties, it was famous that these ranges had been measured above 2 milligrams per liter.
Professor Mustafa Yücel, deputy director at METU’s Institute of Marine Sciences, defined that oxygen dissolves in smaller quantities at sure temperatures and salinity ranges, and notably, oxygen within the deep waters has decreased beneath the edge ranges within the final 30-35 years.
He emphasised that the lower in oxygen ranges to beneath 2 milligrams per liter signifies that most industrial fish species can’t survive on this water and can flee.
Not solely fish but in addition zooplankton, which play a major function within the meals chain and respiration, require oxygen, and their habitats are shrinking.
Yücel identified that the habitats of marine organisms native to the Marmara or species utilizing it as a migratory route have additionally considerably narrowed.
“The cause of oxygen scarcity is primarily pollution. Harmful algal blooms intertwine with pollution, leading to further oxygen scarcity. The ultimate outcome could be deteriorated organic layers, such as the infamous ‘sea snot’ or marine mucilage, causing foul-smelling, discolored waters, where even your hand disappears underwater,” Yücel mentioned.
Yücel moreover identified that the results of the air pollution additionally embody harm to financial actions within the sea, resembling fish farms, and the lack of many companies obtained from the ocean, affecting all the pieces from tourism to aquaculture.
Climate change impact
Professor Barış Salihoğlu, the director of METU’s Institute of Marine Sciences, acknowledged that the Marmara Sea is important from a socio-economic perspective, transitioning between the bodily and ecologically distinct waters of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
He famous that all through historical past, the ocean has skilled vital human strain, which has been growing, with air pollution and overfishing being essentially the most substantial components.
“The pressure of climate change is also very intense; this is already a global pressure and it is felt very strongly in Marmara,” he mentioned.
Despite the unfavourable results of the Black Sea and taking the air pollution coming from the Danube River beneath management, Salihoğlu mentioned that in distinction to this, the strain of the cities surrounding the ocean has considerably elevated.
“As a result, the Marmara Sea has turned into a ‘sick sea.’ Oxygen below 25 meters does not sustain marine life. At present, it is almost anoxic. This suggests that the sea conditions will be extremely harsh during the summer. Oxygen has depleted at 28 meters; there seems to be significant organic accumulation just below the oxygenated layer, which has consumed the oxygen through decomposition,” he defined.
“Oxygen levels slightly increase in deeper areas, but they remain at hypoxic levels. If we reduce pollution by half today, we can aim that the water from the Mediterranean, which feeds the Marmara Sea, will raise the oxygen levels above the hypoxic threshold in at least five or six years,” mentioned Salihoğlu.
He pressured the urgency of upgrading all remedy programs to superior remedy and cleansing the waters of the 11 rivers that circulate into the Marmara Sea to keep away from the worst-case situation.
“The oceans provide us with two types of ‘services.’ One is directly translated into money – obtaining food from the sea. The other is the oxygen and health aspects, which do not have a direct place in the market but carry significant economic and social value. We are losing these services now. The oceans absorb less carbon dioxide and produce less oxygen. They may start producing disturbing toxic gases,” he concluded.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
