Estuaries are one of the many coastal wetlands from Canadas East Coast (Maritimes) that will be focused in this report. Specifically, the geology, climate, major animal life, major plant life, human activities and the factors affecting the environmenta

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Estuaries are one of the many coastal wetlands from Canada’s East Coast (Maritimes) that will be focused in this report. Specifically, the geology, climate, major animal life, major plant life, human activities and the factors affecting the environmental health of estuaries will be examined.

Semi-enclosed coastal bodies of water can be defined as estuaries. Usually, they are with one or more rivers or streams that run through it and a free connection with the open sea. The reason estuaries are important is because it may provide ecosystem services. There are numerous functions that are caused by natural systems, which are beneficial for human welfare. Vegetation can be described as the amount of plant life in a particular area and it helps to secure sediment and the soil along riverbanks and shorelines. Stream flows, rainwater and waves are prevented away from the land. Estuaries can easily build up barriers in forms of mud, silt and sand that help prevent the energy of large waves to damage human life and properties.

Geology

Geology can be defined as the science that may deal with the physical history of the earth-in this case the estuaries located in Canada’s East Coast, and the rocks of which it is composed of along with the physical, chemical, and biological changes of the Earth. There are four types categories that are the cause of the formation of most estuaries. Rising seal level, movement of sand and sandbars, glacial processes and tectonic processes are the four physical processes.

Rivers that flow into estuaries constantly provide inputs of sediment. Sediment can be referred to any material that is broken down or that which deteriorates in ways of either erosion or because of the weather; and is hence moved by other matter such as water, air and ice. The measure of the amount of suspended article, which is usually invisible to the naked eye, can be defined as turbidity. The suspended sediment is redistributed through the estuary with the process of circulation. In the location of fresh waters from the rivers is where the maximum amount of suspended particles exists. The chemical relations between ions dissolved in seawater and the sediment particles inputted by rivers would cause an attraction between these particles; hence, making them stick together. The resulting heavier and slightly larger particles are deposited on the bottom of the estuary and these deposits may fill navigation channels.

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Climate

There are numerous factors that impact climate change in estuaries. These are sea level rise, increased sea surface and air temperature, changes in precipitation and storm intensity and ocean acidification.

Higher temperatures are expected to raise the sea level because of the expanding ocean water, melting mountain glaciers, small ice caps, and the causing portions of the coastal section of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to melt or slide into the ocean.  Snowfall over Antarctica and Greenland are a cause of higher temperatures.

Certain greenhouse gas concentration can have a huge impact on climate change in ...

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