U.S. Geological Survey, Lafayette, LA, 70506, USA.
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204, USA.
Glob Chang Biol. 2016 Jan;22(1):1-11. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13084. Epub 2015 Nov 18.
Due to their position at the land-sea interface, coastal wetlands are vulnerable to many aspects of climate change. However, climate change vulnerability assessments for coastal wetlands generally focus solely on sea-level rise without considering the effects of other facets of climate change. Across the globe and in all ecosystems, macroclimatic drivers (e.g., temperature and rainfall regimes) greatly influence ecosystem structure and function. Macroclimatic drivers have been the focus of climate change-related threat evaluations for terrestrial ecosystems, but largely ignored for coastal wetlands. In some coastal wetlands, changing macroclimatic conditions are expected to result in foundation plant species replacement, which would affect the supply of certain ecosystem goods and services and could affect ecosystem resilience. As examples, we highlight several ecological transition zones where small changes in macroclimatic conditions would result in comparatively large changes in coastal wetland ecosystem structure and function. Our intent in this communication is not to minimize the importance of sea-level rise. Rather, our overarching aim is to illustrate the need to also consider macroclimatic drivers within vulnerability assessments for coastal wetlands.
由于处于陆海交界地带，沿海湿地容易受到气候变化多方面的影响。然而，对沿海湿地的气候变化脆弱性评估通常仅关注海平面上升，而不考虑气候变化其他方面的影响。在全球范围内和所有生态系统中，宏观气候驱动因素（如温度和降雨模式）极大地影响着生态系统的结构和功能。宏观气候驱动因素一直是陆地生态系统与气候变化相关威胁评估的重点，但在沿海湿地方面却被大量忽视。在一些沿海湿地，不断变化的宏观气候条件预计将导致基础植物物种的更替，这将影响某些生态系统商品和服务的供应，并可能影响生态系统的恢复力。作为例证，我们强调了几个生态过渡区，在这些区域中，宏观气候条件的微小变化将导致沿海湿地生态系统结构和功能发生较大变化。我们撰写本文的目的并不是要降低海平面上升的重要性。相反，我们的总体目标是说明在评估沿海湿地的脆弱性时，也需要考虑宏观气候驱动因素。
