Effects of sea-level rise on barrier island groundwater system dynamics – ecohydrological implications

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2014-11-12Author
Masterson, John P.
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Fienen, Michael N.
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Thieler, E. Robert
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Gesch, Dean B.
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Gutierrez, Benjamin T.
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Plant, Nathaniel G.
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/6750As published
https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1442DOI
10.1002/eco.1442Keyword
Groundwater; Barrier islands; Sea-level rise; Vadose zone; Salinity; Ecohydrology; Vegetation distributionAbstract
We used a numerical model to investigate how a barrier island groundwater system responds to increases of up to 60 cm in sea level. We found that a sea-level rise of 20 cm leads to substantial changes in the depth of the water table and the extent and depth of saltwater intrusion, which are key determinants in the establishment, distribution and succession of vegetation assemblages and habitat suitability in barrier islands ecosystems. In our simulations, increases in water-table height in areas with a shallow depth to water (or thin vadose zone) resulted in extensive groundwater inundation of land surface and a thinning of the underlying freshwater lens. We demonstrated the interdependence of the groundwater response to island morphology by evaluating changes at three sites. This interdependence can have a profound effect on ecosystem composition in these fragile coastal landscapes under long-term changing climatic conditions.
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This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Ecohydrology 7 (2014): 1064–1071, doi:10.1002/eco.1442.
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