Resilient Coast: Policy Frameworks for Adapting the Wetlands to Climate Change and Growth in Coastal Areas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

摘要

Coastal wetlands or salt marshes along the U.S. Gulf Coast are threatened by even the smallest amounts of projected sea level rise (SLR). Salt marshes have very narrow water depth requirements. Where topography rises very gently from the sea, salt marsh wetlands will be able to migrate landward with SLR. In many areas, however, topography rises so abruptly that salt marshes will be lost with SLR, and new wetlands will not form until the sea level rises enough to inundate nearly level slopes at higher elevations, a potential gap of centuries. In addition, many areas just inland from coastal salt marshes have been developed and protected with bulkheads or seawalls, such that wetlands are impeded from migrating inland. Coastal salt marshes constitute essential fish habitat.