Ice caps and impacts
9. Extended Questions a. What happens if the polar ice caps melt? According to the United States Geological Survey (2022), if the ice caps were to melt, they would displace the ocean water and cause it to rise enough to cover coastal cities. This would occur due to the volume of water contained in the ice caps which is estimated to be enough to cause water to rise by approximately seventy meters. This would impact ecosystems at coastlines as it would move the coastline significantly inward causing disruptions in reproductive patterns of animals, disruptions to common food sources, and those displaced to the new coastline would be competing with different species that inhabit that area already. Fresh water and estuaries near the coastline would become salinized as well, causing disruption and possible endangerment to species found exclusively in these habitats. Areas below sea level would be su...