How Humans Affected the Antarctic Food Web

Antarctic Impact

Human Effects on Antarctica

There are many unintended consequences of human activities that have had adverse effects on Antarctica. Global warming, which is all but certainly fueled at least in part by the human use of fossil fuels and the release of carbon and other molecules into the Earth's atmosphere, has had an impact on Antarctica despite the frozen continent's distance from anything resembling true modern industry (Ward 2001). The ice shelves surrounding the continent, which provide living habitats and feeding grounds for many land- and sea-dwelling Antarctic animals, have been melting and disintegrating at an increasing rate (Ward 2001). More direct impacts can be found resulting from commercial human activities, such as the harvesting of krill; though over-harvesting may be a problem in and of itself, this harvest also has the unintended consequence of limiting the food supply of seals and penguins, creating other disturbances throughout the Antarctic food web (Landcare Research 2011).

Science and technological advances are both helping and exacerbating the current problems faced in the Antarctic. On the one hand, greater knowledge about the impact of human activities generally and in the Antarctic specifically have led to modifications in behaviors that could reduce some of the impact had on the region, and helping to restore certain animal populations (Ward 2011). At the same time, the ever-increasing pace of human industry demands the ever-greater consumption of fuel and resources, and even newer technologies demand such resource use (Landcare Research 2001). All of this makes the existing problems in the Antarctic that much worse, as global warming and commercial harvesting continue.

If the scientific method were properly applied to the problems that Antarctic (and indeed the world at large) is facing, solutions would quickly and rather simply emerge. First, measurements and observations would clearly show that disturbances are being created by human activities; such measurements and observations actually already exist, though they are disputed by some, proving that it is quite possible to see what occurs from human activity (Ward 2001; Landcare Research 2011). This would (and has) lead to hypotheses regarding the connection between human behaviors -- such as the use of fossil fuels and the commercial harvesting of krill -- and the detrimental effects of these behaviors -- the disintegrating ice shelves and the disruptions to the Antarctic food web at all levels (Ward 2011; Landcare Research 2011). These hypotheses could then be tested by halting the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and ceasing the commercial harvesting of krill; if the issues of global warming subsided (over the ensuing decades) and the Antarctic food web appeared to be operating in a way that allowed all populations to flourish again, then the hypothesized connections would have been demonstrated to be correct and the problems would have been corrected by the experiment itself.