Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...

Vulnerability and Impacts on Human Development 91precipitation, temperature, and humidity will shift habitats that allow insect and animalvectors to survive and transmit disease in new, previously unsuitable areas. Coastaland marine changes will affect ocean and coastal ecosystems by influencing communitystructure, biodiversity, and the growth, survival, persistence, distribution, transmission,and severity of disease-causing organisms, vectors, and marine and terrestrial animalreservoirs (CDC, 2009).Changes in climate will affect the habitat, reproduction rates, and transmission dynamicsfor: mosquitoes that carry malaria, yellow fever, and dengue; ticks that carryLyme disease; and rodents that carry a variety of diseases such as those related to HantaVirus and plague. As the habitats for these disease vectors are expected to shift northward,so too does the disease risk (Portier et al., 2010). The range of mosquito vectorsis expected to shift northward with warmer temperatures and humidity, coupled withchanges in coastal habitats and sea level. For instance, the habitat for two malaria vectors,Anopheles albimanus and Anopheles pseudopunctipennis, which is currently restrictedto warmer climates, will expand northward into the U.S., but extreme conditions suchas prolonged drought or excessively elevated temperatures can also bring that cycle to astop and reduce risk in those areas. With the loss of predators, which changes predatorpreyrelationships, insect and marine and terrestrial animal vectors and reservoirs mayincrease or shift their range, which would necessitate either chemical or mechanical controls(CDC, 2009).How much the recent dengue outbreaks in the U.S. are related to climate variabilityis unclear, but climate is likely one of the drivers (CDC, 2012). Similarly, the role ofmarine animals in zoonotic transmission under changing climate regimes is not well understood(Portier, 2010). A lack of understanding of these complex VBZD transmissiondynamics makes predicting climate-related changes difficult (CDC, 2009).Food and NUTRITION. Climate also poses several direct human-health risks specificallyassociated with food from oceans and estuaries from consumption of contaminatedfood, decreased nutritional value of compromised or stressed food, lack of availabilityor change of access to food, which will be especially impactful for subsistence-food animals(Portier et al., 2010). Climate change is expected to impair seafood safety throughchanges in chemical and biological risks; in particular, toxic metals, organic chemicalsresidues, algal toxins and pathogens of both humans and marine organisms (Marques,2010). Climate change may lead to changes the occurrence of Vibrio species, a type ofbacteria ubiquitous in the marine environment, some of which can cause cholera, gastrointestinalillness, and serious, if not fatal, wound infections. Vibrio outbreaks have beenrelated to changes in water temperature and changes in salinity (Colwell ,2008; Emch,2008; Johnson, 2010; Turner, 2009) and can be monitored and predicted with a combinationof in-situ and satellite observations (Blackwell, 2008; Phillips, 2007).The abundance and distribution of fish stocks are known to change as water temperaturesand circulation patterns change. This affects human health directly in termsof available protein as well as economic productivity and cultural or tribal aspects ofcoastal-community health. In addition, little is known about the changes in nutritionalquality or health of the fish as related to climate (Portier et al., 2010).Sentinel HABITATS and SPECIES. Key habitats and certain marine mammals can