SEA LEVELS

     A rising sea level has been predicted with climate change, a possible 20-60 cm increase in the next 100 years.("US EPA", 2012)   With high sea levels, we have high uncertainty in the future of mangroves.  In Florida it has been shown that the presence of mangroves reduces local sea levels, particularly during storm surges and hurricanes (Krauss et al,2012). Although mangroves prefer salty waters, they can, however, be very sensitive to salinity changes and may affect their ability to uptake nutrients, leading to poor health and possible loss of mangrove abundance (Alongi,2012).

 (A rise in sea level could lead to a decrease in mangrove abundance and even higher local sea levels.)

     However, like the case of increasing El Nino events, there is the ability of the mangrove trees to move inland where they previously did not grow, assuming the habitat has not been completely degraded or converted for development (Kamali et al, 2011).

 (A rise in sea level could lead to an increase in mangrove recruitment and abundance inland at the cost of wetlands.)

    It does seem that sea level rises will negatively impact mangroves especially on the coast and over all as shown in Figure 1.  Research has shown that most mangroves are really sensitive to flooding.  This loss of coastal mangroves will further aggravate this climate change impact by locally increasing sea levels even more.  Effective monitoring, and restoration will be needed to decrease the negative effect.