Scientists have been investigating the disappearance of 10 billion snow crabs from the Bering Sea in Alaska; this problem began in 2018, and with climate change’s effects worsening, has continued into this year. Because of climate change, waters have been gradually heating up. Snow crabs’ metabolisms are temperature dependent, and so the increase in temperature sped up their metabolisms. Since the snow crabs are not able to eat at the same rate their metabolisms have sped up to, many have starved to death.
Jack Barbour (11) said, “I would think that seals and sea otters would be affected since they eat snow crabs. With this disruption in the food chain, other animals in the snow crabs’ ecosystem will be affected.” The water is becoming more acidic due to increased CO2 levels which causes the shells of some of the snow crabs’ prey such as clams, crabs, oysters, and more, to not build up. With other animals being affected, such as snow crab prey, even if snow crabs could develop a hunting instinct comparable to their increased metabolism, there would not be enough food for them. This leads to a decreased population of these species too, and since they are at the base of the food chain, other animals are experiencing starvation due to lack of these prey.
Leila Ramey (11) believes, “A lot of people survive off seafood. The disruption of the food chain would decrease the amount of food available for these people.” Not only animals would be affected, but also people.
If the effects of climate change were to reverse, the levels of CO2 in the ocean would begin to slowly decrease. This would cause more prey to be available for snow crabs with their increased metabolisms; eventually, the temperature levels would decrease enough to revert snow crab metabolism to their normal rate restoring the oceanic food chain. “It would be tough to solve this problem since global warming has gone so far already; the warmer temperatures due to global warming is what causes so many snow crabs to die, so the best way to solve this issue is to combat climate change as a whole,” Jack Barbour (11) concluded.
