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In order to analyse the adaptation to the climate change, the Topic 1 Ecosystems – adaptation of coastal vegetation to climate change was used to analyze the adaptation case study of the Florida coastline. The analysis was used to ensure the following question
The Florida region of the United States has witnessed a climatic change along the coastline due to the rising level of tides from the Atlantic Ocean. These tides have been the main driver towards the ever-changing climatic conditions in the region. The impact of such drastic changes has a severe effect on the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem as explained below.
b) indicate whether adaptation was planned or autonomous?
First, the salty water penetration into the mainland has led to the extinction of some tree species due to the non-eco-friendly nature of the salty water. This has led to the degeneration of the original tree species. This degeneration is caused mainly by the drying off and eventual death of tree species which could not withstand the saline environment .
Secondly, the impact of the climate change along the Florida coast has led to the mushrooming of the of a totally new vegetation that is able to cope with the new salty environment. This vegetation normally includes the salt marsh plants which have mushroomed at the areas with a higher frequency of tidal flooding. This has completely replaced the fresh forest cover along the coastline due to their inability to cope with climate change .
As seen above, the mushroom of the salty march vegetation was a response towards the changing climatic conditions at the coast which from the article was automatic and not planned as the events necessitated the drying of the original vegetation cover and the emergence of new march vegetation which could withstand the salty environment from the tidal floods .
Adaptation to climate change can either be seen as a success or a failure based on the response the exhibited. From the article, it is clear the adaptation response towards the climate change caused by the tidal floods was not clear whether it was a success or a failure. This is as explained below,
From the success front, the adaptation led to emergency of salty march vegetation which benefited from the tide floods as the uprooted tree in the coastline formed a canopy which protected the marsh vegetation from destruction from future storms. The replacement of the fresh trees by the salty march generation created a protective gear which protected the mainland from the tide floods which threatened human and terrestrial life .
Use Evidence To Explain Why
However, on the failure side, this adaptation has led to the massive widespread loss of the forest islands which were predominately made up of fresh trees. The fresh forests islands dried off thanks to the salty tide floods. This led to the extinction of this tree species and the final degeneration of the islands. This threatened forest survival opens up the islands to flooding and reduced fresh water in the said regions.
From the brief, it is clear the adaptation had both success and failure factors hence it is not clear to pinpoint whether or not the adaptation to the climate change brought with it success or failure outrightly .
Climate change adaptation comes in different forms as the various living things adapt to the changing climatic conditions. According to Pittock, there exist eight strategies that can be adopted by living things to adapt to climatic changes. Of a particular concern is the autonomous and spontaneous. This is as explained below.
It is clear the reaction to the change in the climate around the Florida coastline was not planned and occurred spontaneously in response to the change at the coastline. With increasing salty tide flood that made the forest islands degenerates due to unfavorable growth conditions. Their desperation gave space for the emergence of new salty march vegetation which adapted to the new salty environment and grew exponentially at the coastline covering most of it. This is in reaction to the change in the PH of the coastline environment. This forced the spontaneous drying off of the fresh tree island because they could not withstand the salty environment. To replace the withered tree islands, the salty march vegetation mushroomed in the coastline to replace them. This adaptation change is best described as spontaneous and not planned as it all happened in reaction to the prevailing circumstances at the coastline thanks to the change in climatic conditions .
The reaction although can be viewed as both a success and a failure, most of the adaptation response is generally a failure as the loss of indigenous plant species which withered off due to the salty tide floods characterizing the Florida coastline .
Adaptation to climatic change as in most cases comes with unexpected changes that could be either beneficial to the environment or costly to tit. From the Florida case study, there was a mixed unexpected change that benefited the region while some were detrimental to the environment. This is as explained below,
were there unexpected costs or benefits from the adaptation? describe how these costs or benefits arose
The loss of the fresh islands due to the salty tide floods is unexpected loss due to the adaptation as a whole tree species wiped off due to the salty environment which the tree islands could not withstand the salty waters. This affected the environment as the islands could no longer get fresh water due to precipitation. This affected both the aquatic life and terrestrial life. This will be detrimental as it will lead to long-term ecological change .
On the beneficial front, the adaptation led to the emergence of a hardier salty march vegetation which covered the coastline. This new vegetation covers continuously protects the mainland from the tide floods which occur occasionally along the Florida coastline. The protective cover can withstand the salty tide floods for a long time as they have already evolved to the new climatic change .
In conclusion, although as it is expected that climatic adaptation to be costly to the environment, the kind of adaptation witnessed along the Florida coastline has some beneficial factors which shall inevitably protect the mainland from the rising sea levels due to its ability to withstand the salty waters from the tides
Adaptation to climatic changes often results in changes in the society and or ecosystem either in terms of ecosystem and or social transformation or transition. The case study of Florida witnessed an ecosystem transformation as explained below;
The transformation witnessed at the Florida coastline saw a change from the fresh island forest cover which originally was the dominant species along the coastline. But due to the continues salty tide floods, these species dried off since they could not withstand the salty environment. These led to the emergence of a new brand of salty march vegetation which has now transformed the coastline into a different vegetation cover . With continuous low mortality rate among the tree due to high salt concentration and being uprooted especially by the “storm of the century”, tree continuously suffered from the unbearable coastline climate, but the new salty march vegetation has transformed the ecosystem as it not only provides a better mainland cover from the deadly tide floods but also adapted to the salty conditions hence won’t wither off as their tree counterparts did in the same conditions. This is seen as a better coping strategy by the ecosystem towards the changing climatic conditions.
As the transformation is witnessed within the coastline, the ecosystem has made efforts to cope with the prevailing changes in climate to ensure the species withstand the harsh environment, this is a better coping strategy for the ecosystem.
has the adaptation event led to enduring changes in the society or ecosystem, that is, a transition or transformation?
The adaptation to climatic change normally results in some form of disruptions in the ecosystems that may be very risky to the ecosystem. This normally comes to inform of maladaptations which may exist in five different types as explained by . The case study of Florida exhibit some few cases of maladaptation as described below;
The first form of maladaptation was in the form of reduction of incentives in order to adapt. This was evident when the ecosystem deviated from the tree islands to salt marsh vegetation. The original tree islands provided a supply of fresh water to islands by means of precipitations. This was beneficial to the survival of the various living things on the island and the coastline. But due to the ever-increasing tide flood which changes the ecosystem to have salty water in its ecology, the ecosystem transformed to a salt marsh vegetation which not only made the coastline more ready to handle the floods but also provided a breed of vegetation that could contain the salty situation. The incentives originally provided by the tree had to be equated with this new vegetation .
The second form of maladaptation is the path dependency which is evident by the emergence of new salty march vegetation which has little of no use to the ecosystem as compared to the original tree islands. This makes the selected path of adaptation to be more dependent on other sources of life from the mainland trees .
Adaptation undertaken by ecosystem to changing climatic conditions can either increase or reduce the capacity of the ecosystem to adapt to climatic change. From the Florida case study, the response earned the ecosystem capacity to adapt and respond to the future climatic changes, this is as explained below;
With the transformation to the new salty march vegetation, the surrounding ecosystem will be more capable to handle the tide floods from the Atlantic Ocean which is salty. The salt marsh vegetation already is capable of surviving such environments in the future and will pass these traits to a future generation . The overall effect is an environment more capable of protecting itself from the adverse climatic condition as the future may present. The entire coastline shall be based on the salt marsh vegetation which will make the flood not penetrate into the mainland Florida. This shall provide a blanket around the entire coastline against external changing climatic conditions. The end result is an ecosystem capable of defending itself from external climatic changes .
describe these changes and explain whether they have increased the coping range
In summary, although it may seem the response made by the ecosystem towards the climatic change to have maladaptation and failures, it however increased the capacity and the potential of the coastline ecosystem to protect itself from the adverse climatic conditions despite the environmental changes in terms of tree degeneration and loss of island trees in the region.
7 reflect on the articles that you have read for this assignment
After I went through the various scholarly articles about adaptation by the ecosystem toward climatic change. I have found out that the Florida case study and other articles have proved that ecosystem must strive to maintain a balance between survival and the risk of being eliminated. The adaptation strategies sometimes are planned while some in most ecosystems are spontaneous and occur autonomously. I can assert while adaptation may lead to drastic changes in ecosystem, some of them can lead to great failure in terms of benefits the ecosystem accrues from such reactions and responses .
I assess a future climate change action that could involve the possibility of a community reassembly of the forest islands and perhaps the change made to the ecological functions of the Florida coastline. This conclusion I drawn from the CCA theory of change has caused the massive adaptation along the Florida coastline.
The lesson learned from the Florida case study include, first, adaptation often doesn’t lead to failures and drastic shifts in the ecosystem, some reactions are beneficial to the ecosystem hence one should analyze the current situation to establish the adaptation used by the ecosystem in response to climate change.
Second, the ecosystem can either translate or transform to complete new environment to adapt to the climate change which often threatens the existence of some species hence the transformation.
CCA theory of change was particularly important in understanding this case study. This theory explains how the ecosystem response can be planned and or spontaneous to prevailing climate change. According to the theory, it is the natural behavior of the ecosystem to change in its environment to cope with the external climatic change.,
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