Warming and Wildlife » East Coast Habitat At Risk

At Risk: East Coast Habitat

East Coast

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From the rugged, rocky shores of Maine to the sunny, sandy beaches of south Florida, America's Atlantic coast is home to about 100 million people.

It's also home to a wide array of birds, fish, plants and other marine life threatened by sea level rise, changing ocean currents, warmer and more acidic oceans, and more intense storms and surges.

Rising Seas

The East Coast is vulnerable to rising sea levels as glaciers melt and warmer ocean waters expand. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a global sea level rise of between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century, which some scientists now consider a conservative estimate when glacial melt is factored in.

Recent studies also show that the Atlantic coast may be vulnerable to even greater sea level rise than global predictions because of sinking land and changing ocean currents.

As ocean currents change and beaches, bays, estuaries, marshes and wetlands are inundated and pummeled, countless marine species will be displaced – and may disappear entirely.

Shifting Ocean Currents

Scientists calculate that warmer oceans could interfere with the upward movement of nutrients from the deep sea. These nutrients are vital food for phytoplankton, which in turn are eaten by zooplankton and small fish, thus forming the foundation for the wider web of sea life.

One fish that depends on phytoplankton is the small, silvery menhaden, sometimes called the most important fish in the sea -- it is a critical food source for many larger fish, including striped bass, bluefish and bluefin tuna.

Menhaden spawn along the Atlantic coast. Ocean currents carry their larvae into bays and estuaries. They move into rivers for several months before migrating back to the ocean.

Warmer seas and changing ocean currents could throw off menhaden migration patterns. Spawning locations could become vulnerable, particularly in their northern nurseries, reducing their geographic distribution and putting the species at risk.

Life on the Beach

Piping Plover

Some species use natural sand beaches for nesting, including the threatened Piping Plover and several sea turtle species. The beach is a fragile, shifting landscape, and beach nesting species already compete with many other beach users, from ATV riders to volleyball players to commercial developers.

More intense tropical hurricanes, sea level rise, higher temperatures, and bigger storm surges against which humans erect beach-eroding structures also threaten beach nesting species.

Many similar threats also confront the Gulf Coast, where we have been active for years in the recovery effort of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle, the smallest and most endangered sea turtle in the world.

Kemp's ridley turtles may be particularly vulnerable because almost all females return to a single beach – Rancho Nuevo along Mexico's northeast coast – to lay their eggs. This location is vulnerable to strong tropical storms, which could become more severe in a warmer world.

Dying Coral Reefs

Off the Florida coast lie some of the mainland's only coral reefs, which teem with so much and such varied life they are often termed the "rainforest of the sea." Corals also buffer the coastline against the force of storm surges.

But the corals themselves, especially the large branched elkhorn and staghorn corals, may be among global warming’s first victims. These colonial animals are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature and ocean acidity, which are both increasing with global warming.

As go the corals, so will the countless species of juvenile and adult fish, invertebrates, and other sea life that live in the delicate and splendid reef system.

And that in turn will affect humans as well – EDF estimates that coral reefs generate $5.5 billion in wealth for Floridians each year – through fishing, tourism, and other uses. All told, more than 70,000 Floridians may owe their jobs to the reefs' bounty and beauty.