Too Hot to Handle

The impact of increased temperatures to Maldives include increased coral bleaching, loss of biodiversity and an increase in sea level surfaces all of which will impact Maldives negatively. Despite the fact that Maldives only produces one thousandth of a percent of global emissions (MHAHE, 2001), due to its low latitude location and already warm climate it will be one of the locations that feels the impact the most. This is due to narrow climate range that Maldives reefs need to thrive and grow to be their most productive.The tropical species of Maldives have become most proficient at coping with the conditions that are present in their current ecosystem because there is a small change in seasonality at this latitude so organisms have adapted to a stable climate  (Portner et al, 2008). Since it is more energetically favorable to specialize in the conditions they are typically exposed to. However, this also means that these tropical coral species will suffer the most within their habitat, having little ability and time to form adaptations to warmer temperatures (Portner et. al, 2008). Most species of coral are already at, or very near their maximum thermal limits.

The potential to adapt is also not something that can be counted on. Even though it tends to vary between species, the coral reefs grow very slowly and unfortunately are about to get worse with the increase of sea level height.  This is influenced by global warming which will cause current reefs to be submerged deeper, therefore decreasing the rate of  photosynthesis (Allison, 2012). It only takes a surface water temperature increase of .1 °C to induce bleaching, so with an average increase in SST of almost 1 degree, tropical reefs are moving to a climate they may soon not be able to tolerate ("Microdocs...", 2012). This hypothesis was able to be put to the test when reoccurring El Niño events caused a SST increase 2-3°C degrees (Edwards, 2001).
Another serious issue that Maldives faces is the increase in sea surface height (Allison 1999). As water temperature increase it causes the molecules to move faster and take up more space. This causes the sea surface height to increase proportionally to the increase in temperature. The islands have a low elevation making them more prone to flooding or even becoming completely submerged. This problem has the potential to leave thousands of people from Maldives without a home (Allison 1999).