Journal ArticleDOI
Winter climate change and coastal wetland foundation species: salt marshes vs. mangrove forests in the southeastern United States
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The results identify winter climate thresholds for salt marsh-mangrove forest interactions and highlight coastal areas in the southeastern United States (e.g., Texas, Louisiana, and parts of Florida) where relatively small changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme winter events could cause relatively dramatic landscape-scale ecosystem structural and functional change.Abstract:
We live in an era of unprecedented ecological change in which ecologists and natural resource managers are increasingly challenged to anticipate and prepare for the ecological effects of future global change. In this study, we investigated the potential effect of winter climate change upon salt marsh and mangrove forest foundation species in the southeastern United States. Our research addresses the following three questions: (1) What is the relationship between winter climate and the presence and abundance of mangrove forests relative to salt marshes; (2) How vulnerable are salt marshes to winter climate change-induced mangrove forest range expansion; and (3) What is the potential future distribution and relative abundance of mangrove forests under alternative winter climate change scenarios? We developed simple winter climate-based models to predict mangrove forest distribution and relative abundance using observed winter temperature data (1970–2000) and mangrove forest and salt marsh habitat data. Our results identify winter climate thresholds for salt marsh–mangrove forest interactions and highlight coastal areas in the southeastern United States (e.g., Texas, Louisiana, and parts of Florida) where relatively small changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme winter events could cause relatively dramatic landscape-scale ecosystem structural and functional change in the form of poleward mangrove forest migration and salt marsh displacement. The ecological implications of these marsh-to-mangrove forest conversions are poorly understood, but would likely include changes for associated fish and wildlife populations and for the supply of some ecosystem goods and services.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Mangrove expansion and salt marsh decline at mangrove poleward limits
TL;DR: There is now sufficient evidence that mangrove species have proliferated at or near their poleward limits on at least five continents over the past half century, at the expense of salt marsh, consistent with the poleward extension of temperature thresholds coincident with sea-level rise.
Journal ArticleDOI
Poleward expansion of mangroves is a threshold response to decreased frequency of extreme cold events
Kyle C. Cavanaugh,Kyle C. Cavanaugh,James R. Kellner,Alexander J. Forde,Daniel S. Gruner,John D. Parker,Wilfred Rodriguez,Ilka C. Feller +7 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the area of mangrove forests has doubled at the northern end of their historic range on the east coast of Florida, and a temperature-related ecological threshold of −4°C is identified, suggesting that landscape-scale increases in mangroves area may occur in other regions where this threshold is crossed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts of climate change on mangrove ecosystems: a region by region overview
TL;DR: In this article, a review highlights extreme regional variation in climate change threats and impacts, and how these factors impact the structure of mangrove communities, their biodiversity and geomorphological setting.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Impact of Climate Change on Mangrove Forests
TL;DR: Mangrove forests have survived a number of catastrophic climate events since first appearing along the shores of the Tethys Sea during the late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Large-scale dieback of mangroves in Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria: a severe ecosystem response, coincidental with an unusually extreme weather event
Norman C. Duke,John M. Kovacs,Anthony D. Griffiths,Luke Preece,Duncan J. E. Hill,Penny Van Oosterzee,Jock Mackenzie,Hailey S. Morning,Damien Burrows +8 more
TL;DR: The most severe and notable instance ever reported of sudden and widespread dieback of mangrove vegetation was reported in Australia's remote Gulf of Carpentaria in 2015 and 2016 as mentioned in this paper, where the cause was not fully explained but the timing was coincident with an extreme weather event; notably one of high temperatures and low precipitation lacking storm winds.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The value of estuarine and coastal ecosystem services
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TL;DR: In this paper, the main ecological services across a variety of estuarine and coastal ecosystems (ECEs) including marshes, mangroves, nearshore coral reefs, seagrass beds, and sand beaches and dunes are reviewed.
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Journal ArticleDOI
Positive interactions in communities.
TL;DR: Evidence for the importance of positive interactions - facilitations - in community organization and dynamics has accrued to the point where it warrants formal inclusion into community ecology theory, as it has been in evolutionary biology.