Identifying Resilient Sites for Coastal Conservation

Creation

2017-11-01 17:07:53

Last Update

2017-11-01 17:10:05

Start Date

2015-01-01

End Date

2017-03-29

North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative(funder), Mark G. Anderson(Principal Investigator), Analie Barnett(Originator), 2017-11-01(creation), 2017-11-01(lastUpdate), 2015-01-01(Start), 2017-03-29(End), Identifying Resilient Sites for Coastal Conservation, https://www.fws.gov/science/catalog, https://www.sciencebase.gov/depth/#/show/59f9ff69e4b0531197aff0cc

Type: webLink

Climate change threatens to alter the ecology of coasts in the Northeastern US: it disrupts processes, enhances disturbance, rearranges or destroys habitat, and creates novel conditions for the fish and wildlife that inhabit the coastal zone. Although climate change affects the entire coastal region, some places have a higher natural resilience to change due to their physical properties (orientation, elevation, geology, topography, exposure, wave height, and area for marsh migration) and current condition (riverine sediment inputs, freshwater inflow, and the amount and connectedness of surrounding lands). These areas will likely support native species longer by offering more climatic options to current occupants and buffering them from some of the effects of the changing climate. It is important to identify, protect, and restore these natural strongholds as they will become increasingly important in sustaining natural diversity into the future. To map these resilient coastal lands, The Nature Conservancy compiled and analyzed regional data on the factors highlighted above that influence a system’s vulnerability and response to climate change. These physical and condition attributes were evaluated and integrated into a spatially-explicit dataset that estimates the resilience of coastal wetland sites relative to other wetland sites within a similar estuary type (e.g., the resilience of a riverine site was only compared to that of other riverine sites). The resulting dataset is intended to help natural resource managers, conservationists, and others identify resilient lands for protection and restoration across the North Atlantic coast, and has been integrated into the Nature's Network conservation design. The study was completed through a cooperative agreement entitled Identifying Resilient Sites for Coastal Conservation under the North Atlantic LCC Decision Support for Hurricane Sandy Restoration and Future Conservation to Increase Resiliency of Tidal Wetland Habitats and Species in the Face of Storms and Sea Level Rise Hurricane Sandy project.

• LC MAP - Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal
• North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative