http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20876-giant-red-crabs-invade-the-antarctic-abyss.html
Picture: This picture shows the huge crabs that are invading the Antarctic abyss. They are more than three feet across.
Summary: As the deep waters of the Southern Ocean warms, these giant crabs are moving to the Antarctic. Three years ago, researches predicted this happening in the next 100 years. But already, more than a million specimens of Neolithodes yaldwyni are colonizing Palmer Deep. It has also been found that these crabs are laying waste to the landscape. They "prod, probe, gash, and puncture" delicate sediments with their legs. Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii at Manoa says, "This is likely to alter sediment processes, such as the rate at which organic matter is buried, which will affect the diversity of animal communities living in the sediments,". Not only that, the crabs are eating many of the echinoderms in the area, causing the number of species in colonized areas to be just a quarter of that in areas that escaped the invasion. Richard Aronson of the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne also said that these crabs will probably have a huge impact on the bottom communities. The only way to stop the crabs from continuing to wipe out the local wildlife and ruin ecosystems that evolved over 14 million years, is to slow the rate of global warming.
Opinion/Reflection: It's scary to think that this is happening already when scientists predicted this to happen over the next 100 years or so. It's even scarier to think that all this is happening because of global warming, which means that in the end, this is mostly our fault. Because of the temperature of the water rising a teensy bit, ecosystems that took millions of years to build are in danger.
I personally love eating crab legs so maybe I could help the environment by eating more! I think that that could be another way to stop (or at least slow down) these crab invasions - by fishing them.
Questions: 1. Would this have still happened without human activities contributing to global warming?
2. How long will it take for these crabs to completely ruin the ecosystem?
3. Are there any other ways to stop this from happening other than slowing down global warming?
Opinion/Reflection: I think that this is horrible. To think, all of this is starting because of what we have done to our world. These crabs are going to slowly ruin the oceans ecosystems, and I think that since we started it, we need to help end it. Maybe, like Lisa said, we can try and catch some crabs to eat them. instead of taking the crabs away from their homes where they aren't hurting the ecosystems, we can take them so help.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
1.) If we did try to catch them to eat, would it help to stop them ruining things?
2.) Do any other animals eat these crabs to help get rid of them?
3.) how long will it be before a lot of the crabs come in and start to take over?
I wonder about the question all the time, "what would it be like if we weren't here." I wonder if these crabs would have entered the ecosystem without us. It is like the show a world without humans.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is crazy because scientist said that this would happen in about 100 years and it happened in about 3. Since these crabs are ruining the sediment process we should definitely do something about it. i cant think of a way to tie this back into my life because i don't live in the antarctic. but maybe i could help slow down the global warming effect by going "Green".
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
How do these crabs get to be 3 feet across?
Why dont we just relocate the crabs to a place where it does not effect the ecosystem?
Are these crabs edible?
I think those crabs look like a couple of dinosaurs. It's pretty weird that the crabs have made their way to colder waters because the ocean is getting warmer. In the article it said that they could invade Antarctica within 100 years. Wacky. I think these crabs should be called Ocean Spiders.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
1. How will these crabs moving to Antarctica affect the food chain?
2. How cold does the water have to be for them?
3. Will the crabs and penguins in Antarctica get along?
This article scares me, to know that global warming is the cause of this. It's horrible what they're doing to the Antarctic oceans. This is one more reson to be environmentally friendly and help the Earth. I think that the answer to number three is that we could attempt to find a non-destructive predator for the giant red crabs, and increase their population.
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