Human Impacts by Kyle

The Marine ecosystem I visited was downtown Edmonds water. This ecosystem consists of exposed sand and/or larger rocks until the water is reached. At the shore and around 70 feet out into the water is also sand and/or larger rocks. The water out to around 30 feet ranges from 0 feet to around 3 feet deep.  There are large amounts of seaweed on certain parts of the beach, though small amounts of seaweed on other parts of the beach. Many barnacles and much seaweed are on what seam to be large rocks placed in the water by humans. A bridge that goes a couple hundred feet out into the water allows cars to board ferry boat. One human impact on this ecosystem is the concrete that divides the beach, around 100 or so feet from the shore. Another human impact on this environment are the large rocks supporting a path out into the water. The visual effect of the rocks supporting a path is an increased amount of barnacles and seaweed. The waves created when the water runs into the large rocks creates waves that differ from the ones that are created when the water runs into the shore. The long term effect of the concrete that divides the beach could be that it stops erosion from taking place if the beach is eroded down to the concrete divide. The long term effect of the large rocks that support a path out into the water could be an overpopulation of barnacles and seaweed. Being that the large rocks create a divide for about 150 or so feet out into the water, with time some species may choose to only stay on one side of the divide, and increase there population there. I believe that the large rocks that create a path out into the water increase the population of barnacles and seaweed because both barnacles and seaweed prefer to attach to hard surfaces such as rocks. In order to address these human impacts articles can be posted in newspapers, and people that take place in designing and creating urban environments near marine ecosystems can be informed more directly.