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Tidal wetland stability in the face of human impacts and sea-level rise

Nature volume 504, pages 53–60 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Coastal populations and wetlands have been intertwined for centuries, whereby humans both influence and depend on the extensive ecosystem services that wetlands provide. Although coastal wetlands have long been considered vulnerable to sea-level rise, recent work has identified fascinating feedbacks between plant growth and geomorphology that allow wetlands to actively resist the deleterious effects of sea-level rise. Humans alter the strength of these feedbacks by changing the climate, nutrient inputs, sediment delivery and subsidence rates. Whether wetlands continue to survive sea-level rise depends largely on how human impacts interact with rapid sea-level rise, and socio-economic factors that influence transgression into adjacent uplands.

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Figure 1: Wetland feedbacks.

MATTHEW KIRWAN; PATRICK MEGONIGAL

Figure 2: Conceptual links between sea-level rise and marsh accretion.
Figure 3: Human disturbance of tidal wetland ecosystems.

ILKA FELLER/LIGHTHAWK; JIM TITUS; FRIDA SIDIK; ANDY BALDWIN

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Acknowledgements

The U.S.G.S. Global Change Research Program and the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research Program (NSF DEB-0621014) supported this work financially. We thank G. Guntenspergen for conversations that enhanced this work.

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  1. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, PO Box 1346, 1375 Greate Road, Gloucester Point, 23062, Virginia, USA

    Matthew L. Kirwan

  2. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, 21037, Maryland, USA

    J. Patrick Megonigal

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Kirwan, M., Megonigal, J. Tidal wetland stability in the face of human impacts and sea-level rise. Nature 504, 53–60 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12856

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