Linhoss, A.C.; Kiker, G.; Shirley M., and Frank K., 2015. Sea-level rise, inundation, and marsh migration: simulating impacts on developed lands and environmental systems. Sea-level rise is expected to affect natural and urban areas by shifting habitats and inundating infrastructure. To plan for a sustainable future, it is important to identify both human and ecological vulnerabilities to sea-level rise. Here, we simulate impacts to urban, developed lands and environmental systems from sea-level rise by analyzing land cover (surface cover) and land use (land purpose) in the Matanzas River study area in NE Florida. The Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) simulated land-cover change through wetland migration under three sea-level rise scenarios. Parcel data, including land use classification and land valuation, was overlaid on the simulated, future land cover. Our analysis describes a 2- to 5-km-wide longitudinal band along the NE coast of Florida of expected land-cover change where sea-level...

Oysters provide a wide variety of ecosystem services including furnishing habitat, supporting an economic industry, and enhancing water quality. To identify suitable areas for oyster restoration and aquaculture, areas of oystersuitable habitat must first be identified. A habitat suitability model is an ideal tool for identifying sites for species restoration. Because it relies on presence-only data, MaxEnt is a particularly useful habitat-suitabilitymodel for identifying restoration and species introduction sites. Habitat suitability models rely on the selection of environmental factors, which are assumed to be important for the target species; however, this selection of environmental factors is often arbitrary and there are few existing guidelines. This work applies an oyster habitat suitability model to the St. Louis Bay in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Six environmental factors, namely average salinity, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, water depth, minimum dissolved oxygen, and average...

Marsh terracing is a wetland restoration technique that is being implemented in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Marsh terraces are segmented berms of soil built within shallow coastal ponds, designed to increase marsh area and reduce wave energy. Approximately 980 linear km of marsh terraces have been constructed over almost 30 years in Louisiana and Texas to combat subsidence and sea-level rise; however little research has been conducted to determine their effectiveness. The objective of this study was to assess marsh terrace performance. The change in marsh terrace areas was measured over time through remote sensing. This analysis was conducted using one-meter resolution imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery program (NAIP) from 2003 until 2017 from five Louisiana coastal parishes. Twenty terrace fields of study between 10 and 14 years old were randomly selected within each parish. Results show more predominant deposition (55%) than erosion (45%) in marsh terraces. Terrace fields with high channel density and thereby an external sediment supply show more deposition compared to low channel density fields. This is the first study assessing multiple marsh terrace fields performance. Results are promising, especially considering the current rate of sea level rise and subsidence in Louisiana.