Wetlands
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes and bogs. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater or fresh water.
Why is it important to protect wetlands?
if wetlands aren’t preserved, many different species of plants and animals would go extinct. This includes types of fish that lay their eggs in the wetlands and spend much of their time at sea. Due to this, the abundance of fish and other seafood would go down, greatly affecting fishing industries
Wetlands are like filters for the water that go through them, clearing out toxins and making the water less polluted.
Many of the members towards the bottom of the food chain live in wetlands. If those are eliminated, many other ecosystems would go off balance.
Wetlands provide extra protection against floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
How will global warming affect the UK?
In the UK, rare animal and plant species are sometimes found in particular coastal environments, such as an area of sand dunes or salt mashes. If temperature rises between 2 and 4 degrees Celcius, there will be major changes in the geographical distribution of British forests and other plan and bird communities. Global warming will certainly bring changes to the biosphere in Britain, it may not lower our total biodiversity, because there could be winners as well as losers.
What does degradation mean?
When an are has a social, economic and environmental decline in character and equality often through industrialisation. An example of this is the Amazonian rainforests where Brazil destroys 100,000 km squared each year.
What is the difference between direct and indirect degradation?
Direct is deliberate actions such as removal of forests to create space for agriculture. Human actions of damaging the biosphere. Indirect, not deliberate actions, for example pollution.
How is global warming impacting on different biomes?
Changed growing season- the growing season for plants in central England has already lengthened by about one month since 1900. Exotic species such as yucca and olive now thrive in the warmer and sometimes drier conditions experienced by southern England.
New marine wildlife- there are more sightings of whales, sharks and sea turtles in British waters. These changes in marine biodiversity are thought to be a result of warming surface water temperatures.
Moving tree-line- some scientists think that the tree-line is moving upwards into higher areas in the Scottish highlands. This should bring greater biodiversity to some upload areas.
Unusual and severe heatwaves have already affected the UK. There are also fewer frosts and winter cold spells now. If these trends continue, then trees could become stressed where water supplies are limited.
What other pollution issues are there?
loss of biological functions, including reproduction
Direct mortality (death) and species decline
Tissue and vital organ damage
Image-https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/wetland/
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