An assessment of marine, estuarine, and riverine habitat vulnerability to climate change in the Northeast U.S.

Climate change is impacting the function and distribution of habitats used by marine, coastal, and diadromous species. These impacts often exacerbate the anthropogenic stressors that habitats face, particularly in the coastal environment. We conducted a climate vulnerability assessment of 52 marine, estuarine, and riverine habitats in the Northeast U.S. to develop an ecosystem-scale understanding of the impact of climate change on these habitats. The trait-based assessment considers the overall vulnerability of a habitat to climate change to be a function of two main components, sensitivity and exposure, and relies on a process of expert elicitation. The climate vulnerability ranks ranged from low to very high, with living habitats identified as the most vulnerable. Over half of the habitats examined in this study are expected to be impacted negatively by climate change, while four habitats are expected to have positive effects. Coastal habitats were also identified as highly vulnerable, in part due to the influence of non-climate anthropogenic stressors. The results of this assessment provide regional managers and scientists with a tool to inform habitat conservation, restoration, and research priorities, fisheries and protected species management, and coastal and ocean planning.

Comparison of benthic invertebrate assemblages at Spartina alterniflora marshes reestablished after an oil spill and existing marshes in the Arthur Kill (NY/NJ).

In January 1990, an oil spill damaged salt marshes along the banks of the Arthur Kill (New York and New Jersey, USA). In the years following the spill, Spartina alterniflora seedlings were planted at a number of the oil damaged sites and successfully reestablished at these sites. In 1996, the National Marine Fisheries Service began a study to compare the benthic invertebrate assemblages at the reestablished S. alterniflora marshes to those at nearby existing marshes in the Arthur Kill. Oligochaetes, nematodes, and the small tube-building polychaete, Manayunkia aestuarina were the dominant taxa in the study. Significant differences were found in the abundances of all invertebrate individuals, oligochaetes, and nematodes between the September and May sampling times but not between reestablished and existing marshes. Although benthic invertebrate community structure was similar at reestablished and existing marshes three to four years after planting, the functional similarity of these marshes was not assessed in this study.