Climate change impacts on coastal wetlands.

Coastal wetlands, such as salt marshes and mangroves, are valuable ecosystems that are vulnerable to climate change. Sea level rise and increasing storm frequency and intensity may lead to increased flooding of coastal wetlands, and finally may cause the die-back and erosion of salt marshes or mangroves. In this project we want to study the adaptability of coastal wetlands to increasing sea level and storminess. The dense vegetation of salt marshes or mangroves is able to reduce hydrodynamic forces (tidal currents and waves) and to promote the deposition of sediments. In some places in the world this sediment accretion is enough to overcome the increased flooding by sea level rise and storms, but in other places coastal wetlands are increasingly flooded and finally disappear. In this project we want to identify the critical thresholds that determine the survival or disappearance of coastal wetlands in response to increasing sea level and storminess. These thresholds involve both biotic variables (like vegetation characteristics) and geophysical variables (like suspended sediment availability, tidal range, etc.). The study will be based on a combination of field work (preferably in the Schelde estuary, Belgium, Netherlands), remote sensing, and hydrodynamic modelling.

Keywords:WETLANDS, GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGES

Disciplines:Ecology, Environmental science and management, Other environmental sciences