Global Warming’s Impact on Living Organisms: A Quantitative Analysis of the Effect of Temperature on Bacteria

As global warming becomes more apparent, the effects of temperature on living organisms are causing great concern. However, most information regarding the impact of rising temperature on life is descriptive and inexact. Along with AP Calculus, I took AP Biology my sophomore year and was fascinated by the idea of emergent properties, the idea that life is not a simple sum of its respective parts; interactions between the different levels of biology create emergent properties that cause, for example, a cell to behave differently from a mixture of its component molecules. I wondered how increasing temperature affects organisms, particularly bacteria, and how its effect on organisms differs from its effect on the chemical reactions that the organism is composed of . . .The impacts of global warming have significant implications for the fate of our globe. Increased temperature will harm plants and animals in the sea and force animals and plants on land to search for new habitats. Climate change will cause flooding, drought and an increase in the number of damaging storms . . .

• Chemistry