4 ms·
> Isn't land-based biology highly sensitive to heat pollution? No, land-based organisms comparatively have a much, much higher tolerance to temperature swings.
by smallnamespace 10y ago
> Isn't land-based biology highly sensitive to heat pollution?
No, land-based organisms comparatively have a much, much higher tolerance to temperature swings.
Water's high heat capacity and conductivity means that most marine environments have extremely stable temperature ranges (a few degrees one way or other), so most marine species are adapted to live in only that range, and quickly die otherwise. Tropical fish are hard to keep alive precisely for this reason.
Air temperature varies much more widely depending on time of day, season, and weather, so terrestrial organisms have all developed extensive strategies for thermoregulation (e.g. mammals, birds). For example, dogs can survive in both arctic and tropical environments.
Plus, while heat is naturally dissipated upward, underwater thermal plumes are more likely to affect fish than above-ground plumes would affect birds.
FYI, Cornell uses lake water to cool several campus buildings, and they needed to carefully review that the warmer return water wouldn't negatively affect fish [1].
[1] https://energyandsustainability.fs.cornell.edu/util/cooling/production/lsc/eis/fish.cfm https://energyandsustainability.fs.cornell.edu/util/cooling/...
- ouid 10y agoSunlight imparts about a kilowatt per square meter to the surface of the ocean at noon, I'm not exactly sure how to use that information, but it does seem relevant for bounding the problem.
- afarrell 10y agoThe specific heat of water is much higher than that of air.
- klodolph 10y agoRight, but the data center heat output will also be measured in (mega)watts.
- saeranv 10y agoThis gets a lot lower with differing latitudes and seasonal and daily cloud cover/evening time - closer to 100 W/m2 [1]. So over a day you'd get 2.4 kWh. In comparison an electric space heater uses about 1 kWh of energy in an hour. So how much will 2.4 kWh change the temperature of a cubic meter of water at the ocean surface? Density of water = 1000kg/1m3 so mass = 1000 kg 2.4 kWh = 8640 kJ Heat_Energy = Conductance * Mass * change_in_temp 8640kJ = 4.186 kJ/(kg⋅K) * 1000kg * xC x = 2C So solar heat will change the first meter of water by about 2C over the course of a day. That's a small number b/c solar radiation is not a huge contributer to temperature swings. Instead what will effect the temperature difference is the seasonal change. If we can calculate the heat energy gained or lost due to seasonal extremes and water temp, then we can figure out what the range of acceptable heat energy is for surface water. [1] https://www.withouthotair.com/c6/page_38.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c6/page_38.shtml ETA: logic.