Forest Loss is Accelerating Along the US Gulf Coast

Matthew J. McCarthy; Benjamin Dimmitt; Sebastian DiGeronimo; Frank E. Muller-Karger

doi:10.1007/s12237-021-01000-6

Forest Loss is Accelerating Along the US Gulf Coast

Matthew J. McCarthy
, Benjamin Dimmitt
, Sebastian DiGeronimo
, Frank E. Muller-Karger

Remote Sensing

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sea-level rise is impacting the longest undeveloped stretch of coastline in the contiguous United States: The Florida Big Bend. Due to its low elevation and a higher-than-global-average local rate of sea-level rise, the region is losing coastal forest to encroaching marsh at an unprecedented rate. Previous research found a rate of forest-to-marsh conversion of up to 1.2 km² year⁻¹ during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but these studies evaluated small-scale changes, suffered from data gaps, or are substantially outdated. We replicated and updated these studies with Landsat satellite imagery covering the entire Big Bend region from 2003 to 2016 and corroborated results with in situ landscape photography and high-resolution aerial imagery. Our analysis of satellite and aerial images from 2003 to 2016 indicates a rate of approximately 10 km² year⁻¹ representing an increase of over 800%. Areas previously found to be unaffected by the decline are now in rapid retreat.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	913-919
Number of pages	7
Journal	Estuaries and Coasts
Volume	45
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-01000-6
State	Published - May 2022

Funding

This research was funded by NOAA through the University of Michigan Water Center, Grant Number NAI4NOS4190145; by NSF, Grant Numbers 1728913, 1043681, and 15559691; by NASA, Grant Number NNX14AP62A; and by NOAA/ONR, Grant Number NA19NOS01201990. This work was sponsored by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative, which supports collaborative research that addresses coastal management problems important to reserves. This manuscript is a contribution to the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network.?Thanks go to Ronan McCarthy for inspiration. This research was funded by NOAA through the University of Michigan Water Center, Grant Number NAI4NOS4190145; by NSF, Grant Numbers 1728913, 1043681, and 15559691; by NASA, Grant Number NNX14AP62A; and by NOAA/ONR, Grant Number NA19NOS01201990. This work was sponsored by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative, which supports collaborative research that addresses coastal management problems important to reserves. This manuscript is a contribution to the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network. Thanks go to Ronan McCarthy for inspiration.

Keywords

Climate change
Florida
Ghost forest
Landsat
Sea-level rise

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10.1007/s12237-021-01000-6

Cite this

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title = "Forest Loss is Accelerating Along the US Gulf Coast",

abstract = "Sea-level rise is impacting the longest undeveloped stretch of coastline in the contiguous United States: The Florida Big Bend. Due to its low elevation and a higher-than-global-average local rate of sea-level rise, the region is losing coastal forest to encroaching marsh at an unprecedented rate. Previous research found a rate of forest-to-marsh conversion of up to 1.2 km2 year−1 during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but these studies evaluated small-scale changes, suffered from data gaps, or are substantially outdated. We replicated and updated these studies with Landsat satellite imagery covering the entire Big Bend region from 2003 to 2016 and corroborated results with in situ landscape photography and high-resolution aerial imagery. Our analysis of satellite and aerial images from 2003 to 2016 indicates a rate of approximately 10 km2 year−1 representing an increase of over 800\%. Areas previously found to be unaffected by the decline are now in rapid retreat.",

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AU - McCarthy, Matthew J.

AU - Dimmitt, Benjamin

AU - DiGeronimo, Sebastian

AU - Muller-Karger, Frank E.

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N2 - Sea-level rise is impacting the longest undeveloped stretch of coastline in the contiguous United States: The Florida Big Bend. Due to its low elevation and a higher-than-global-average local rate of sea-level rise, the region is losing coastal forest to encroaching marsh at an unprecedented rate. Previous research found a rate of forest-to-marsh conversion of up to 1.2 km2 year−1 during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but these studies evaluated small-scale changes, suffered from data gaps, or are substantially outdated. We replicated and updated these studies with Landsat satellite imagery covering the entire Big Bend region from 2003 to 2016 and corroborated results with in situ landscape photography and high-resolution aerial imagery. Our analysis of satellite and aerial images from 2003 to 2016 indicates a rate of approximately 10 km2 year−1 representing an increase of over 800%. Areas previously found to be unaffected by the decline are now in rapid retreat.

AB - Sea-level rise is impacting the longest undeveloped stretch of coastline in the contiguous United States: The Florida Big Bend. Due to its low elevation and a higher-than-global-average local rate of sea-level rise, the region is losing coastal forest to encroaching marsh at an unprecedented rate. Previous research found a rate of forest-to-marsh conversion of up to 1.2 km2 year−1 during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but these studies evaluated small-scale changes, suffered from data gaps, or are substantially outdated. We replicated and updated these studies with Landsat satellite imagery covering the entire Big Bend region from 2003 to 2016 and corroborated results with in situ landscape photography and high-resolution aerial imagery. Our analysis of satellite and aerial images from 2003 to 2016 indicates a rate of approximately 10 km2 year−1 representing an increase of over 800%. Areas previously found to be unaffected by the decline are now in rapid retreat.

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Forest Loss is Accelerating Along the US Gulf Coast

Abstract

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Keywords

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