Title: The Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Animal Life | Actforlibraries.org
Headings: The Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Animal Life
The Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Animal Life
Content: The Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Animal Life | Actforlibraries.org
The Impact of Rising Sea Levels on Animal Life
Earth Science
Sea level has been rising at an average rate of approximately 1.8 mm a year for the past 100 years. Sea level rise has been attributed mainly to an increase in global temperatures and the subsequent thermal expansion, which causes the upper 500 meters (1640 ft.) of the surface of the ocean to expand, with a fraction of this attributed to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers due to global warming. While sea level rise affects both humans and animals, it may have a profound effect on certain animal species which rely on the coastal ecosystems, which are most affected by sea level rise, for breeding and feeding. Coastal habitat
Increasing sea levels causes flooding on the coastal ecosystem. The depth of flooding depends on the elevation of the coastal habitat, for example, estuaries, bogs, swamps, mangroves, marshes, mud flats and beaches are the first habitats to be flooded. Many coastal animals are resilient to saltwater inundation, but others require freshwater to survive. Sea level rise threatens to flood many coastal wetlands. Wetlands are biologically diverse ecosystems, hosting a variety of plant and animal species. It has been estimated that sea level rise could exceed one meter (3.2 ft.)