Question: How long does sea life take to adapt to sudden changes in the environment, such as a drastic sea level rise?

Dave Sproson answered on 22 Jun 2011:

I think it really depends on the type of sea life you are talking about… Some animals, particularly animals with a fast life cycle (and so more chance to adapt in a given period of time) will probably be ok, but animals that breed much more slowly will find it hard to adapt. It also depends how much the habitat that a particular species lives in changes. An open water fish, for example, probably wouldn’t be affected at all (at least directly) by sea level rise, but coral reefs, which tend to live in a fairly narrow depth range may really struggle to cope with a fast increase in sea levels.