Effects of Ozone Layer Depletion

Effects on Human Health

Too much UVB could cause skincancer because it plays a major role in maligna melanoma development of the skin cancer disease. Furthermore, the ozone layer depletion could also cause eye cataracts. The depletion of the ozone layer increases the amount of UVB and it could result into a high risk of getting diseases especially skin and eye diseases.

Effects on Plants

Too much UVB could also affect the development of plants. The increase of UVB radiations could also affect the plant growth. Hence, these changes that is caused by UVB can have important implications in terms of biogeochemical cycles, plant competitive balance, herbivory and plant diseases.

Effects on Marine Ecosystems

Phytoplankton form the foundation of aquatic food webs. Solar UVB radiation has been found to cause damage to early developmental stages of fish, shrimp, crab, amphibians and other animals. The most severe effects are decreased reproductive capacity and impaired larval development. Even at current levels, solar UVB radiation is a limiting factor, and small increases in UVB exposure could result in significant reduction in the size of the population of animals that eat these smaller creatures.

Effects on Biogeochemical Cycles

Increases in solar UV radiation could affect terrestrial and aquatic biogeochemical cycles, thus altering both sources and sinks of greenhouse and chemically-important trace gases. These potential changes would contribute to biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks that could change or affect the atmospheric buildup of these gases.

If we continue to disregard the care for our Ozone Layer, every specie living will be affected. Everything will be in chain reaction. There are a lot of things we could do to save our Ozone layer. May it be small or big but whatever it is, we must and we should help to save our Ozone layer because at the end, it will always be us who will be mostly affected.

Source of this article: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/effects/