Question

PLEASE BE AS DETAILED AS POSSIBLE. THE PRECISE DETAILS ARE REALLY IMPORTANT IN THIS QUESTION. IT IS A 10 POINT QUESTION THAT I AM REALLY STUCK ON.

PLEASE PROVIDE EXAMPLES

1. List the four ecosystem services provided by Puget Sound and describe how they might be valuated (economic values calculated).

2. Describe three ways that climate change will likely impact marine systems. Use concrete examples from systems

Answer 1

1. The four ecosystem services provided by Pudget sound are

a. Provisioning services

It includes the products obtained from ecosystems like food and fresh water. They are evaluated in terms of biophysical production like tons of salmon landings.

b. Regulating services

It includes the advantages from regulation of ecosystem processes like nutrient assimilation. In this case the level of production is not vital, rather it depends on the capability to regulate the services.

c. Cultural services

It includes the nonmaterial advantages acquired from ecosystems like spiritual enrichment, reflection, recreation aesthetic feelings etc. These perceptions differ among individual's and are hard to measure.

d. Supporting services

It includes other additional services needed for production of other ecosystem services. Examples are production of oxygen, soil formation and retention etc.

2. The three ways that climate change will likey to produce impact marine systems are:

a. The seawater is gradually acidified along with inhibiting calcification. Marine organisms like coral, shellfish, pteropods are negatively impacted. Their skeleton producing ability is significantly reduced.

b. Warming of the seawater which contributes to raised stratification of water column, elevated metabolic rates of organisms, altered solubility constants as a result solubility of different gases or carbonates is affected.

In raised temperature zooplankton grows faster than phytoplankton which creates a bottleneck in the foodchain which may produce larger effects on ocean's food web.

c. Altered salinity in marginal seas which produces accompanied adverse effect on the ion budgets of live cells. The sheepshed minnow is highly adaptable to wide range of salinities. But reduced salinity produces higher metabolic rate which is needed for osmotic adjustment. Oxygen consumption was found to be greatest among minnows in dilute surrounding.