Serious or Not? Saltwater Intrusion’s Dangerous Effect on Freshwater Plants

This document is an essay on Saltwater Intrusion that follows a lab done in order to test the hypothesis provided. Here is the abstract to the essay: Saltwater intrusion occurs when there is a displacement of the freshwater-saltwater interface in coastal aquifers. In a replicated experiment to test for the effects of saltwater intrusion in freshwater plants, Wisconsin Fast Plants® were sown in quads, separated into freshwater and saltwater testing groups, and allowed to grow for 19 days on their respective Wisconsin Fast Plants® watering systems. After the 19 days, the stem heights were measured, and their correlation with their testing groups was analyzed. In this experiment, mean stem height was significantly different between the two testing groups. Wisconsin Fast Plants® grew much less when watered by saltwater. This suggests that the salt present in the water has a severely negative impact on plants in coastal ecosystems.