Aquatic Plants & Global Warming

Anthropogenic, or man-caused, global warming is a major threat to aquatic plants all over the world. Rising temperatures and water levels have a big impact on plants and cause serious damage and death to populations.

Aquatic Plants

• There are many types of aquatic plants, from the delicate coral reef systems to algae and weeds growing in a pond or lake. All species are affected by global warming.

Oxygen

• Warmer water has less oxygen in it, which can contribute to the suffocation of plants. It can also suffocate animals that eat pest plants like algae, which can lead to an explosive algae population.

Sea Level

• As the sea levels rise due to the melting of the glaciers, many coral reefs will be too far under water to survive. This can destroy the ecosystem of many other plants and animals that live in the reef.

Coral Bleaching

• Coral bleaching is caused by warmer water temperatures, which kill off zooxanthellae in coral; without the zooxanthellae, colonies of coral die and turn white.

Significance

• As aquatic plants are damaged, the ecosystems they support will also be damaged -- an event that can have consequences that reach all the way to the highest parts of the food chain, including the depletion of fish supplies for human consumption.