Effects of Climate Change to Blame for Fish Deaths in Lake Oanab
When talking about the impacts of climate change, we mostly hear about changes to land and the planet’s surface or atmosphere.
However, most of the warming is going on in sea water, lakes and rivers where many ecosystem changes are also occurring.
As explained by the US agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the basic chemistry of ocean or lake water acidification is well understood.
These are the three main concepts: more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere means more CO2 in the ocean or lake water; atmospheric CO2 is dissolved in the ocean or lake water which becomes more acidic; the resulting changes in the chemistry of the oceans or lake water disrupts the ability of plants and animals like fish in the sea or lake water to make shells and skeletons of calcium carbonate, while dissolving shells already formed.
We have witnessed the death of thousands of fish at Lake Oanab near Rehoboth recently, which might be caused by organic material, when more rainfall increases the amount of organic material flowing into the lake’s water.
Ollivier Girard/CIFOR