An international team of scientists from Australia, Singapore, the United States and elsewhere studied the resilience of mangroves, tidal marshes and coral islands to rising sea levels and global warming. Experts concluded that warming the planet’s atmosphere by more than 2 °C compared to the pre-industrial era would cause the flooding and death of more than 1.5 thousand coastal ecosystems worldwide. To work published in the scientific journal Nature.
Mangrove forests and wetlands are important in tackling global warming because of their ability to absorb large amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The scientific team collected data on 190 mangroves, 477 tidal marshes and 872 coral reef islands worldwide. The researchers then used computer simulations to determine how much these ecosystems would be affected by rising sea levels under various climate change scenarios.
The analysis showed that most coastal swamps, mangrove forests and coral reefs can cope with the current annual rate of ocean invasion on land of 2-4mm. However, if the global climate warms more than 2°C, the rate of sea rise will increase to 7-8 mm per year. In this case, almost all mangroves and tidal marshes would be at the bottom with a 90% probability. The risk of coral reefs being completely submerged would be 67%.
Even at lower rates of 4-5mm per year sea level rise, significant loss of mangroves and tidal wetlands is likely, the researchers said.
Scientists have called on governments and organizations around the world to take action to protect coastal ecosystems by expanding protected areas and controlling the development of coastal areas.
ancient scientists accepted 1 billion reduction of humanity after 2100 due to climate change.