Coastal wetlands cant keep pace with sea-level rise, and infrastructure is leaving them nowhere to go | FIU News [Video]

Randall W. Parkinson, Florida International University

Wetlands have flourished along the world’s coastlines for thousands of years, playing valuable roles in the lives of people and wildlife. They protect the land from storm surge, stop seawater from contaminating drinking water supplies, and create habitat for birds, fish and threatened species.

Much of that may be gone in a matter of decades.

As the planet warms, sea level rises at an ever-faster rate. Wetlands have generally kept pace by building upward and creeping inland a few meters per year. But raised roadbeds, cities, farms and increasing land elevation can leave wetlands with nowhere to go. Sea-level rise projections for midcentury suggest the waterline will be shifting 15 to 100 times faster than wetland migration has been clocked.

I have been studying coastal geology and wetlandsfor more than 40 years. The rates of sea-level rise that we’re seeing now mean portions of today’s coastal wetland …