INDIAN OCEAN WARMING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

 Recent studies have pointed out an increased warming over the Indian Ocean during the past half-
century, the reasons for warming are not clear but the results have proved problematic for India.

 Increased warming in the ocean enhances the large-scale upward motion of warm moist air over the equatorial ocean.

CONSEQUENCES:-

 This upward motion over the ocean is compensated by subsidence of dry air over the subcontinent

resulting in surplus rains over the ocean at the cost of the monsoon rains over land, thereby drying the Indian subcontinent.

 Decline in the marine phytoplankton in the Indian Ocean – microscopic plants in the ocean which

sustain the aquatic food web, absorb the solar radiation thereby influencing climate processes and

biogeochemical cycles, particularly the carbon cycle.

 Food security issues as large scale distribution of fishes are associated with the phytoplankton’s

availability.