 |
Changes in sea levels can disrupt a species natural growth.
© AMNH, Ross MacPhee |
|
|
#2 - Changes in Sea Level
Closely linked to climate change, changes in sea-level are also commonly implicated as a cause of mass extinctions. As evidenced by the geological record, sea-level change may have played a major part in the extinctions of the late Cambrian, the late Ordovician and the end of the Permian periods. Sea level can lower when ice sheets form during periods of global cooling and rise when they melt. Any change disrupts the ocean’s wealth of ecological niches and the plants and animals that inhabit them. Warm, shallow seas are home to an extraordinary number of species and are also particularly vulnerable to any change in water level.
|
 |
|
8 of 17 |
|
 |
|
|
|