User:Couchpotato1111/Mangrove restoration

Climate change adaptation[edit]
As well as providing the benefit of a carbon sinks, mangroves also host potential for climate change adaptation. They provide protection to local communities from sea level rise, coastal erosion, storms, and storm surge or storm flooding. The main climate change concerns for the future of mangroves are sea level rise, decreased cold weather events or global temperature rise, and increased storm severity and weather patterns. Mangroves are naturally durable and adaptable species but the impacts of climate change will alter the mangroves habitat and depending on the severity of the impacts the mangrove will attempt to adapt the best it can. Sea level changes have caused mangroves to adapt in way of mobilizing; depending on the geographic location and local topography mangroves will adjust to survive impending water level changes. Sea level rise increase in relation to forest floor elevation is a good determinate to the future of mangrove adaption. If a mangrove forest floor rises at a rate exceeding the local rate of sea level rise, it is predicted that other local plant species will invade the spaces mangroves migrate away from, replacing them. When the forests move inland, intertidal flats and banks are predicted to spread out seawards that can allow for mangroves to repopulate the area and support expansion in the future. If the forest floor rising rate is equal to sea level rise then the forest can survive and remain stable. If the forest floor rising rate is slower than the rate of sea level rise, the forest will sink into the coast and drown, mangroves will move to invade land that’s been changed by erosion and tidal patterns. In the IPCC AR5 report, the potential of ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) to climate change is discussed, which includes the restoration of mangroves. An example of this can be seen in Bangladesh, where the government initiated the plantation of 50,000 hectares of mangrove forest to stabilize coastal areas, in an attempt to tackle increasing erosion. Evidence suggests that this initiative was successful in increasing accretion of coastal sediment, which reduced coastal erosion in this area and protects coastal communities from flooding and storm events. It has also been found that areas surrounding mangrove forests are subject to less damage from cyclones than nonforested areas. Information gathered from a Climate Change Report study, for impacts climate change have on mangrove forests in 2015, predicted regional changes in salinity, precipitation, and sea level rise for 2081-2100 (relative to the 1986-2005 reference period) this predicted that mangrove forests in the United States will continue to expand their latitudinal ranges as temperature, sea level and atmospheric Co2 concentrations increase.