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

Nicholas Murray; Thomas A. Worthington; Pete Bunting; Stephanie Duce; Valerie Hagger; Catherine E. Lovelock; Richard Lucas; Megan Saunders; Marcus Sheaves; Mark Spalding; Nathan  Waltham; Mitchell  Lyons

doi:10.1126/science.abm9583

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

Nicholas Murray, Thomas A. Worthington, Pete Bunting, Stephanie Duce, Valerie Hagger, Catherine E. Lovelock, Richard Lucas, Megan Saunders, Marcus Sheaves, Mark Spalding, Nathan Waltham, Mitchell Lyons

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

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Abstract

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 km(2), leading to a net change of -4000 km(2) 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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	744-749
Number of pages	6
Journal	Science
Volume	376
Issue number	6594
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm9583 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6503080 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5968865 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19121660.v2
Publication status	Published - 13 May 2022

Keywords

WATER INDEX NDWI
MANGROVE FORESTS
ASSESSING ACCURACY
COASTAL
AREA
VULNERABILITY
WORLD

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1126/science.abm9583
10.5281/zenodo.6503080Licence: Unclear 1
10.5281/zenodo.5968865Licence: Unclear 1
10.6084/m9.figshare.19121660.v2Licence: CC BY

Accepted ManuscriptAccepted author manuscript, 2.08 MBLicence: CC BY
science.abm9583_smData, 2.52 MBLicence: CC BY

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Murray, N., Worthington, T. A., Bunting, P., Duce, S., Hagger, V., Lovelock, C. E., Lucas, R., Saunders, M., Sheaves, M., Spalding, M., Waltham, N., & Lyons, M. (2022). High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth’s tidal wetlands. Science, 376(6594), 744-749. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm9583, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6503080, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5968865, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19121660.v2

@article{55fdc0d4aa3e433f8a882098b1372ac5,

title = "High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth{\textquoteright}s tidal wetlands",

abstract = "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 km(2), leading to a net change of -4000 km(2) 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.",

keywords = "WATER INDEX NDWI, MANGROVE FORESTS, ASSESSING ACCURACY, COASTAL, AREA, VULNERABILITY, WORLD",

author = "Nicholas Murray and Worthington, {Thomas A.} and Pete Bunting and Stephanie Duce and Valerie Hagger and Lovelock, {Catherine E.} and Richard Lucas and Megan Saunders and Marcus Sheaves and Mark Spalding and Nathan Waltham and Mitchell Lyons",

note = "Funding Information: We thank R. Canto, M. Toor, and N. Y. C{\'a}rdenas for assistance wi developing the training data. Landsat data are courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the US Geological Survey. We thank the Google Earth Engine team for providing Earth Engine, and M Dewitt and N Clinton for assistance with rocessin Landsat covariates in Earth Engine. This work was supported by the following: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award DE190100101 (N.J.M.); Australian Research Council Discovery Australian Laureate Fellowship FL200100133 (C.E.L.); Julius Career Award from CSIRO (M.I.S.); Australian Research Council Linkage grant LP170101171 (V.H.). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved;",

year = "2022",

month = may,

day = "13",

doi = "10.1126/science.abm9583",

language = "English",

volume = "376",

pages = "744--749",

journal = "Science",

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publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

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Murray, N, Worthington, TA, Bunting, P, Duce, S, Hagger, V, Lovelock, CE, Lucas, R, Saunders, M, Sheaves, M, Spalding, M, Waltham, N & Lyons, M 2022, 'High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth’s tidal wetlands', Science, vol. 376, no. 6594, pp. 744-749. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm9583, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6503080, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5968865, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19121660.v2

TY - JOUR

T1 - High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth’s tidal wetlands

AU - Murray, Nicholas

AU - Worthington, Thomas A.

AU - Bunting, Pete

AU - Duce, Stephanie

AU - Hagger, Valerie

AU - Lovelock, Catherine E.

AU - Lucas, Richard

AU - Saunders, Megan

AU - Sheaves, Marcus

AU - Spalding, Mark

AU - Waltham, Nathan

AU - Lyons, Mitchell

N1 - Funding Information: We thank R. Canto, M. Toor, and N. Y. Cárdenas for assistance wi developing the training data. Landsat data are courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the US Geological Survey. We thank the Google Earth Engine team for providing Earth Engine, and M Dewitt and N Clinton for assistance with rocessin Landsat covariates in Earth Engine. This work was supported by the following: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award DE190100101 (N.J.M.); Australian Research Council Discovery Australian Laureate Fellowship FL200100133 (C.E.L.); Julius Career Award from CSIRO (M.I.S.); Australian Research Council Linkage grant LP170101171 (V.H.). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved;

PY - 2022/5/13

Y1 - 2022/5/13

N2 - 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 km(2), leading to a net change of -4000 km(2) 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.

AB - 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 km(2), leading to a net change of -4000 km(2) 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.

KW - WATER INDEX NDWI

KW - MANGROVE FORESTS

KW - ASSESSING ACCURACY

KW - COASTAL

KW - AREA

KW - VULNERABILITY

KW - WORLD

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130636383&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.globalintertidalchange.org/

U2 - 10.1126/science.abm9583

DO - 10.1126/science.abm9583

M3 - Article

C2 - 35549414

SN - 0036-8075

VL - 376

SP - 744

EP - 749

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 6594

ER -

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

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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