• DOI:10.1126/science.abm9583
• Corpus ID: 248749118

High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth’s tidal wetlands

@article{Murray2022HighresolutionMO,
  title={High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth’s tidal wetlands},
  author={Nicholas J. Murray and Thomas A. Worthington and Peter Bunting and Stephanie Duce and Valerie Hagger and Catherine E. Lovelock and Richard M. Lucas and Megan I Saunders and Marcus Sheaves and Mark D. Spalding and Nathan J. Waltham and Mitchell B. Lyons},
  journal={Science},
  year={2022},
  volume={376},
  pages={744 - 749}
}

• N. Murray, T. Worthington, +9 authors M. Lyons
• Published 13 May 2022
• Environmental Science
• Science

Tidal wetlands are expected to respond dynamically to global environmental change, but the extent to which wetland losses have been offset by gains remains poorly understood. We developed a global analysis of satellite data to simultaneously monitor change in three highly interconnected intertidal ecosystem types—tidal flats, tidal marshes, and mangroves—from 1999 to 2019. Globally, 13,700 square kilometers of tidal wetlands have been lost, but these have been substantially offset by gains of 9700 km2, leading to a net change of −4000 km2 over two decades. We found that 27% of these losses and gains were associated with direct human activities such as conversion to agriculture and restoration of lost wetlands. All other changes were attributed to indirect drivers, including the effects of coastal processes and climate change. Description Global shifts in tidal wetlands Ecologically and economically important coastal wetlands are threatened by sea level rise and land use change. Murray et al. used high-resolution satellite imagery to assess the global extent of tidal wetlands and changes in wetland extent and distribution over the past two decades. They found that although over 13,000 square kilometers of tidal wetland have recently been lost, much of this decreasing extent has been offset by the creation of new wetlands. The greatest losses and gains were in tidal flats, but mangrove ecosystems showed the largest net decline in area globally. Direct human impacts on wetlands, including land transformation and restoration, are detectable from satellite imagery and account for 27% of wetland losses and gains. —BEL High-resolution satellite imagery reveals that substantial global losses of tidal wetlands are largely offset by new wetland formation.