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150933 - Atoll inland and coastal mangrove climate change vulnerability assessment.pdf (1.51 MB)

Atoll inland and coastal mangrove climate change vulnerability assessment

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 09:18 authored by Crameri, NJ, Joanna EllisonJoanna Ellison
Climate change threatens global mangroves, which are already among the world’s most impacted ecosystems. Vulnerability components of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity were evaluated on mangroves of atoll settings on Jaluit Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, assessing spatial changes of mangrove cover 1945-2018/19, sea-level trends 1968-2019, and reviewing available information. Inland mangrove depressions occur on Jaluit, as well as coastal lagoon margin mangroves, and both were assessed using the same methods. Spatial analysis results showed both inland and coastal mangroves have increased in area. Inland mangroves on eight of Jaluit’s islands mostly expanded after 1976 from 40 to 50 hectares, with progradation and tidal creek infill closing lagoon connections. Shoreline mangroves showed 88-100% of transects prograding 0.1-0.51 m year-1 and 0-11.5% of transects eroding 0-0.18 m year-1. Assessment of a combination of aerial/satellite images, literature and on-the-ground photos indicated that the mangroves are in healthy condition. Vulnerability assessment results showed both inland and coastal mangroves to have similar strengths and weaknesses in resilience, with intrinsic areas of vulnerability persisting during increased future sea level rise, limited sediment supply and extremely low elevations.

History

Publication title

Wetlands Ecology and Management

Volume

30

Pagination

527-546

ISSN

0923-4861

Department/School

School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences

Publisher

Springer

Place of publication

Netherlands

Rights statement

© The Author(s) 2022. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly sited.

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems