facts about ocean pollution and the carbon cycle

1. Ocean pollution
project
Spyros Kokios
30th May 2023

2. Table of Contents
• Ocean oxygen
• Carbon cycle
• Ocean pollution
• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

3. Oceans produces valuable oxygen
Why is the ocean
heath important
for producing
oxygen?
What is
deoxygenation?
It is estimated that roughly 50% of the Earth’s oxygen is produced by plankton-drifting plants, algae and some bacteria
that can photosynthesize. One particular species of bacteria, Prochlorococcus, is the smallest photosynthetic organism
on Earth. Yet, it produces 20% of the Earth’s oxygen! So, keeping the ocean healthy and letting these creatures provide
oxygen is important for our survival. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html
Deoxygenation is a process in which the ocean uses up more oxygen than it takes in. Oceans get their oxygen in two
ways: either by drawing it from the atmosphere either from tiny plants which produce oxygen during photosynthesis.
Both these events occur at the surface of the water. However, organisms use up oxygen when they breathe. If the
surface of the ocean isn’t supplying the rest of the ocean with enough oxygen, oxygen loss occurs.
There are two main causes of deoxygenation:
Chemical Runoff-Chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorus are used to help crops grow and to treat sewage water.
These chemicals often enter the ocean through runoff or rain. This causes aquatic plants, like algae, to grow much faster
than usual. After the algae die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and are broken down by bacteria. This process uses
up oxygen and produces carbon dioxide.
Global Warming-Our planet is experiencing more heat waves than before, which is causing the surface of the ocean to
warm up. Warm water is less soluble than cool water, which means it cannot take in as much oxygen, nor can it take in
carbon dioxide and carry it down to the ocean bed, as it would normally do. Warm water is also lighter than cold water,
so it cannot sink down and mix with the cool water, spreading oxygen evenly throughout the ocean. These two issues
combined cause deoxygenation to happen even more rapidly.
Are there things people can do to help stop deoxygenation?
To slow down or prevent further deoxygenation, we must combat climate change by reducing our global carbon
emissions.
We can do our part by driving and flying less frequently, turning of our air conditioning, and where possible, buying food
which has been grown without the use of chemical fertilizers.
https://kids.earth.org/life-in-the-water/ocean-deoxygenation/

4. The carbon cycle
mangrove trees
There aren’t many ways in which people can help protect mangrove trees, expect by not littering and by stop chopping
down trees and rainforests. This way mangrove tress can play their crucial part in the carbon cycle.
https://kids.earth.org/life-in-the-water/facts-about-mangrove-trees
How do mangrove
trees help with
the carbon cycle?
What can people
do to help protect
mangrove trees?
Forests can also absorb huge quantities of carbon through the process of photosynthesis. Mangrove trees can do this,
too. For this reason, they are extremely a help in mitigating the effects of climate change. They have actually
been recorded to absorb almost 10 times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than terrestrial
forests! https://kids.earth.org/life-in-the-water/facts-about-mangrove-trees/

5. The carbon cycle
whales
How do whales
help with the
carbon cycle?
How can people
help protect
whales?
Whales capture a significant amount of carbon from the atmosphere.
Great whales mostly eat phytoplankton, a microscopic plant that
changes sunlight and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen.
Over its lifetime of around 60 years, a single whale can collect around
33 tons of carbon dioxide. A tree can absorb up to 22kgs of carbon
dioxide a year. Even when whales die (naturally), they are helping the
environment. The bodies sink to the seafloor, and the carbon stored in
them can feed deep-sea ecosystems and become locked in to the
seafloor, with carbon being locked away for hundreds of years.
Whales don’t face many problems, but they do face the huge problem of
whale hunting. During 1900s whale hunting peaked, with 90.000 killed in the
1960s alone. Whale hunting was banned by the UN in 1982. Some countries
though kept hunting whales. So, to protect them, whale hunting must stop.

6. Ocean pollution
Ocean pollution stems primarily from human activities, threatens these many benefits.
More than 80% of ocean pollution comes from land-based sources , mainly plastic waste, making its way
to the seas through runoff, rivers, atmospheric deposition, and direct discharges.
What are the
effects of ocean
pollution?
What are the
causes of ocean
pollution?
Ocean pollution poses a clear and present danger to human health and well-being. Its impacts fall most
heavily on low-income countries, coastal fishing communities, people on small island nations, indigenous
populations, and people in the high Arctic – groups that for the most part produce very little pollution
themselves, which their survival relies on the health of the seas. Ocean pollution kill marine life, causing
people who depend on the sea’s health to starve.
1.More Than 8 Million Tonnes of Plastic Enter the Ocean Every Year
2.Billions of People in the World Regularly Eat Fish
3.Marine Animals Will Accidentally Eat Plastic Waste
4.Plastic Waste Traps Animals
5.Plastic Breaks Down into Microplastics
6.Ocean Plastic Pollution Will Triple by 2040
7.Plastic Waste Will “Never “Go Away
What are 7
important facts
about plastic
pollution?

7. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
A world wide environmental problem
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a big patch of garbage and debris in the middle
of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is caught in the water currents. It formed because
currents near the center of the Northern Pacific Ocean move around in a kind of
circle, which catches and holds floating pieces of plastic.
Location
The "Yellowwood Island" actually has two areas,, which are separated because of ocean
currents. Scientists estimate that the size of the "plastic island" is approximately equal to the
land area of Texas. It is more like a soup of plastic pieces floating in the ocean just below the
surface. It is 900 km (560 mi) from California, between Hawaii and Japan.
Hazards
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that the plastic soup causes the death of one million sea birds and 10,000 sea animals every
year.
Composition
The pieces of plastic come from all over the world. Any country that has a shore or river, where such pieces blow or wash out to sea is a source.
Changes
Changing winds and currents often cause parts of this plastic island to break away and send pieces of plastic toward the beaches and shorelines of
Pacific Islands and the continents
Cleanup
In April 2008, Richard Sundance Owen, a building contractor and scuba dive instructor, started the Environmental Cleanup Coalition to solve the
problem of the pollution in the North Pacific. They are working with other groups to find ways to safely remove plastic and organic compounds
from the oceans.
Project Kaisei is a project to study and clean up the garbage patch launched in March 2009.