Essay Examples on University of New Orleans

CRITERIA The increasing rate of global climate change seen in this century and predicted to accelerate into the next will significantly impact the Earth's oceans In this review we examine previously published seagrass research through a lens of global climate change in order to consider the potential effects on the world s seagrasses A primary effect of increased global temperature on seagrasses will be the alteration of growth rates and other physiological functions of the plants themselves The distribution of seagrasses will shift as a result of increased temperature stress and changes in the patterns of sexual reproduction Indirect temperature effects may include plant community changes as a result of increased eutrophication and changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events The direct effects of sea level rise on the coastal oceans will be to increase water depths change tidal variation both mean tide level and tidal prism alter water movement and increase seawater intrusion into estuaries and rivers A major impact of all these changes on seagrasses and tidal freshwater plants will be a redistribution of existing habitats