Conserving Freshwater and Coastal Resources in a Changing Climate

an integral role in the biodiversity and productivity
of the planet, a source of water critical to all species.
These systems provide a wide range of habitat types,
are host to numerous unique and rare species, serve
as important spawning and nesting habitat, and serve
numerous other functions and values. Many of these ecosystems
have a limited tolerance for disruptions outside
their natural ranges of variability. Climate change poses
a series of large, long-term and potentially catastrophic
impacts that could forever alter, if not eliminate, many
of the biodiversity and ecosystem services of aquatic
ecosystems within the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern
United States, as well as across the globe.
The health of aquatic ecosystems is intimately related
to the well-being of the hydrologic realm in which they
exist. Many of the predicted effects of climate change
relate directly to changes in hydrology or weather patterns,
which could in turn greatly affect freshwater and
coastal areas.
Natural systems are constantly evolving and the ecosystems
that exist today are a result of previous variations
in climatic, geologic and biotic interactions over
eons. However, the changes anticipated as a result of
the concentration of carbon dioxide and other gases in
the atmosphere are predicted to happen at an unprecedented
rate, out pacing the ability for evolution to allow
these species and communities to adapt. In addition,
aquatic environments have been so altered by human
influence that their ability for natural adaptation has, in
many cases, been compromised.
Conserving Freshwater and Coastal Resources in a Changing Climate
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