How does floods affect animals and plants

A natural disaster can revitalise an area, whilst evolution has meant that animals living in places prone to them are able to survive despite the destruction. Animals and plants transported in the water are able to travel and recolonise somewhere new, ensuring the survival of their species.

Wildlife will usually return to repopulate an area, often within a short amount of time of the disaster occurring, or a different species may take up residence. Fires can enrich soils with fresh nutrients, and animals can be attracted back to the new growth in places affected by a recent fire.

Where devastation appears to be the only result of extreme weather, new animal life can be encouraged to repopulate. This demonstrates how natural disasters ensure the continuation of evolution. They rely solely on humans to care for them in the aftermath, and would otherwise struggle to survive.

If you live in an area prone to disaster such as flooding, ensure you have a plan of action you can put into place should anything happen. Hello, fellow animal lovers! I foster and adopt rabbits and have a rescue dog called Luna. Animal Welfare. What is Joii? Search for:. Rivers which overflow can also cause waters to rise in an area. A dam breaking, snow melting also cause floods. Earthquakes, which presage tsunamis can cause massive flooding in coastal areas.

What damage do floods cause and how to restore that damage? Damages caused by flood are immediate. Lives are lost, properties are destroyed and if rural areas are hit crops are destroyed.

Flooding causes severe damage, disrupts economic processes and causes a food shortage. Consequences of flooding on property value will cause areas who continue to have flooding problems to have a decrease in real estate value. There will be areas that are more prone to flooding issues. The flood problems in these areas increase the already degraded state of their environment.

Flooding impact, especially in urban areas, is enormous. People may have to get stranded during the commute and get stuck for hours. The flood destruction in cities disrupts business, commerce, and tourism.

Flooding causes and effects have far-reaching consequences. There are times of the year where floods are more likely to occur due to hurricanes and typhoons. What are social impacts? Flooding issues include families being displaced resulting in trauma. Mental health professionals should be part of the emergency response team to help people deal with the consequences of the loss of property and loved ones.

Long term challenges may include having to deal with the loss of livelihood and property. Individuals affected need to rebuild their lives and possessions. Government help is needed in disseminating aid and repairing structures that can help a community recover.

The environment can get severely devastated from a flood. Parts of the Somerset Levels have been continuously underwater since December, causing much disruption to the people who live there. But how does flooding affect plants? The answer is that it depends. Some plants are perfectly happy growing in wet places e. However, in generally drier areas such as fields or pastures, the presence of excessive amounts of water can cause the plants to become stressed and even die.

There are many ways that flooding can damage plants. Excessive moisture in soil decreases oxygen levels. This impedes respiration where energy is released from sugars in the roots leading to the build-up of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen gases. Ultimately, the roots can suffocate and die.

Toxic compounds such as ethanol and hydrogen sulphide can also build up in the soil and damage plants. If leaves and stems are submerged, photosynthesis absorption of energy from the sun to produce sugars can be inhibited and plant growth can slow or even stop.

Plants that are suffering from excessive-water stress are more prone to infection by disease-causing organisms such as fungi or insects. These forests could not survive on local rainfall alone. There are also many smaller plants that only germinate, grow and reproduce in a flooded environment like a wetland. Blackwater events occur naturally and can result in very low oxygen levels in the water, as a result of organic matter from the forest floor breaking down, particularly in warmer weather.

As fish and some other aquatic animals breathe the oxygen from the water, critically low oxygen levels can cause some fish to die.