Item – Thèses Canada

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Numéro d'OCLC
973734645
Lien(s) vers le texte intégral
Exemplaire de BAC
Exemplaire de BAC
Auteur
Torio, Dante,
Titre
Modelling the impacts of sea level rise on tidal wetlands
Diplôme
Ph. D. -- McGill University, 2016
Éditeur
[Montreal] : McGill University Libraries, [2016]
Description
1 online resource
Notes
Thesis supervisor: Gail L Chmura (Supervisor).
Includes bibliographical references.
Résumé
"In this century, it is expected that both coastal land development and sea level rise will pose a major threat to tidal wetlands. Historically, tidal salt marshes and mangroves have adjusted to sea level rise, but how they will adjust to the accelerated sea level rise associated with anthropogenic climate change is uncertain. Future adjustments are likely to be limited both by the capacity of the wetlands to accrete, the ability of the vegetation at the seaward edge to tolerate greater hydroperiods and the suitability of inland areas for wetland migration. With the presence of natural and anthropogenic barriers inland, the capacity of wetlands to adjust to sea level rise and the provision of their ecosystem services are likely to be compromised. Using spatially explicit analyses in a geographic information system (GIS), this thesis presents a series of studies modelling magnitude and impacts associated with sea level rise and how these threats will affect two ecosystem services-habitat provision and carbon storage. An index quantifying threats to migration space or 'coastal squeeze' was developed based upon elevation, accretion, slope and degree of imperviousness of intertidal zone. The index was used to rank the threats of coastal squeeze to three marshes at different sea level rise rates. A modification of the coastal squeeze index, using global datasets, was applied to rank the level of threat to North American salt marshes and mangroves. Using a suite of landscape ecology metrics, I examined the impacts of coastal squeeze and different rates of sea level rise on the spatial distribution, size, shape and orientation of wetland patches as they relate to the quality, quantity and availability of fish habitat. The results of different assumptions of accretion rates (i.e., constant rate vs. accretion rate equals sea level rise rate) were compared. Finally, using a spatially and temporally explicit model, I evaluated the sensitivity of carbon storage in a marsh relative to the different rates and trends (i.e., linear vs. non-linear) of sea level rise, spatial variations in vertical accretion, creek expansion, inland migration and topography."--
Autre lien(s)
digitool.Library.McGill.CA
digitool.library.mcgill.ca
escholarship.mcgill.ca
escholarship.mcgill.ca
Sujet
Geography