You are here:
COASTAL ZONES, A REPORT OF THE MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL ASSESSMENT TEAM FOR THE GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH PROGRAM
Citation:
Najjar, R., P. Anderson, C. G. Knight, H A. Walker, P. Megonigal, N. P. Psuty, V. S. Kennedy, AND R. S. Swanson. COASTAL ZONES, A REPORT OF THE MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL ASSESSMENT TEAM FOR THE GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH PROGRAM. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, EPA/600/A-01/120, 2000.
Description:
Impacts of climate change on coastal areas can be expected to have a regional signature that depends on the local climate change and the local geomorphological, biogeochemical, ecological and social factors that affect the sensitivity to climate. Here we present an assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on one of the most populated and ecologically important areas of the United States, the mid-Atlantic coastal (MAC) region, as part of a "National Assessment" process mandated by the US Global Change Research Program (Fisher et al. 2000). For this assessment, the MAC region extends from central New Jersey (near Toms River) to central North Carolina (near Cape Lookout), and includes several large estuaries: Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle-Pamlico Sound (see Chapter 2 for a map of the region).
This chapter summarizes how climate change is likely to affect the physical environment in the MAC region. We consider how sea level will change, as well as changes in atmospheric CO2, temperature, precipitation and streamflow. Then we discuss the results from our assessment of possible ecological and societal responses to such changes. We conclude by identifying priorities for climate-change research in the MAC region.