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18 - Impacts of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

from Part III - Marsh Response to Stress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2021

By
Zoe J. Hughes ,
Duncan M. FitzGerald  and
Carol A. Wilson
Edited by
Duncan M. FitzGerald  and
Zoe J. Hughes
Duncan M. FitzGerald
Affiliation:
Boston University
Zoe J. Hughes
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

Recent estimates of global salt marsh area sit at 5.5 million hectares (Mcowen et al. 2017). Conservatively, this translates to $1 trillion of ecosystem services per annum, potentially as much as $5 trillion (De Groot et al. 2012, Mehvar et al. 2018), equivalent to the entire US federal budget for 2019. There can be little debate as to the value of salt marshes, both in terms of the ecosystem services they provide and the key part they play in helping us understand past climate and sea level trends. This chapter summarizes the preceding work and draws together some key observations and notable knowledge gaps highlighted in the previous chapters. We provide a focus on the expected response of salt marshes to the stresses created by a changing climate.

Keywords

climate changeshifting ecotonesaccelerating sea- level rise
Type
Chapter
Information
Salt Marshes
Function, Dynamics, and Stresses
 , pp. 476 - 481
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

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