IB ESS HL 4.3.7 Climate Change Impacts Questions
Analyse how warming, acidification and circulation changes affect aquatic systems.
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2026
- Course
- ESS HL
- Level
- HL
Exam points
- identify climate-change impacts on aquatic systems, including ocean acidification, warming, altered currents or upwelling, and changes in species or prey distribution
- explain how increased carbon dioxide lowers ocean pH and affects sensitive organisms, while warming and circulation changes alter food webs, fisheries and food supply
- analyse and evaluate climate-change impacts on aquatic ecosystems and societies using case evidence, considering linked causes, ecological uncertainty, adaptation capacity and competing human interests
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IB ESS HL 4.3.7 Climate Change Impacts Questions question 1
[Maximum number: 4]
Outline four impacts of climate change on wild fisheries.
Increased temperature (especially in Tropical/low-latitude waters) would reduce fish stocks/increase fish mortality / marine species unable to adapt to increased temperatures will be reduced/go extinct;
b. Increased temperatures in high latitude waters might increase fish stocks;
c. Increased temperatures will cause changes in fish migration routes/patterns/ some areas may benefit from immigration of more fish species / most will see steep declines;
d. Increased temperatures reduce survival of juvenile fish/alters mating behavior/reduces reproductive output, thus reducing fish population;
e. Increased temperature will bleach corals/degrade marine habitats/webs;
f. Loss of oxygen in warmer waters is lethal (especially to non-mobile bottom dwellers/in close, shallow water bodies), destroying food webs on which fisheries depend;
Note to examiners: Credit any valid statement of equivalent significance and validity;
accept reference to freshwater systems.
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